i 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 



THE DISCOVERY 

OF GUIANA 



And the Journal 
of the Second Voyage thereto 



BY 

SIR WALTER RALEIGH 



NEW YORK 
THE MERSHON COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



ESTATE Of 
SEPT, 3, ^ 6 



i 



INTRODUCTION. 



Sir Walter Raleigh or Rawleigh, was born in 
1552, in the Manor House of Hayes Barton, about 
three miles from Budleigh Salterton, in Devon- 
shire. He went at fourteen to Oxford, as a Com- 
moner of Oriel ; and before he was eighteen he 
had taken arms in France as a volunteer in the 
ranks of the Huguenots. Walter Raleigh, the 
elder, was married three times, and Walter 
Raleigh, the younger, was his son by the third 
wife. Her maiden name was Champernon, but 
when he married her, she was widow of Otto Gil- 
bert, with three sons. One of them was Humphrey 
Gilbert, whose name is associated with that of his 
half-brother Walter Raleigh in the history of Eng- 
lish adventures by sea. 

From France, where he had fought in the battles 
of Jarnac and Montcontour, young Walter Raleigh 
returned to England, studied law for a short time 
in the Middle Temple, and wrote a poem of com- 
pliment prefixed, in 1576, to Gascoigne's " Steel 
Glass;" but in 1578 he fought under Sir John 
Norris in the Low Countries. Then he was off on 
adventure by sea with his half-brother Humphrey 
Gilbert ; and in 1580 he was a captain with the Eng- 
lish troops in Ireland, where he first met Edmund 
Spenser. Spenser had come to Ireland a few 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

months before as secretary to the Lord Deputy, 
Arthur Lord Grey of Wilton. Raleigh and 
Spenser, who were then young men of about eight- 
and-twenty, became afterwards strong friends ; for 
Raleigh also, vigorous man of action, was a poet 
and a good one, and Spenser, foremost of the true 
Elizabethan poets, took not less interest than Mil- 
ton in the vital action of his time. 

In December, 1581, Raleigh was sent from Ire- 
land to London with despatches for the Queen. 
In February, 1582, he went with Leicester to Ant- 
werp. In the following April he had a new 
appointment as a Captain in Ireland, because as 
the Queen's warrant ran, " Our pleasure is to have 
our servant Walter Rawley trained some time 
longer in that our realm for his better experience 
in martial affairs, and for the especial care that 
we have to do him good, in respect of his kindred 
that have served us, some of them near about our per- 
son." But his office was by the same warrant to be 
for a while committed to a deputy, because he had 
" for some considerations " leave to stay in England. 

It was at this time that Raleigh's character and 
his rare personal accomplishments began to raise 
him high in the Queen's favour. To this time 
belongs the doubtful story of the cloak gallantly 
spread over the wet shore at Greenwich for the 
Queen to walk upon. He was thirty years old, 
with six feet of a handsome body richly dressed — 
a Flemish Jesuit wrote of Raleigh, when in height 
of favour, that his mere shoes were, for the jewels 
in them, worth 6,600 gold pieces — a handsome 
face with plenty of dark hair, speech witty and 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

bold, proud bearing, fiery energy ; a man of in- 
tense vigour in action, who could pay her Majesty 
the happiest compliments, and sing her praise as 
" Cynthia " with sense as well as music in his verse. 

In the summer of 1583, Raleigh's brother-in- 
law, Humphrey Gilbert, having found others to 
join money in the adventure, started on a second 
expedition. Raleigh contributed to it .£2,000 for 
the equipment of a ship, " The Ark Raleigh," but 
the Queen would not allow him to sail in it. The 
expedition was unfortunate. Gilbert was drowned 
in the wreck of his own vessel, crying to his com- 
rades, " Be of good heart, my friends, we are as 
near Heaven by sea as by land ! " 

Sir Humphrey Gilbert's letters patent were con- 
tinued by the Queen in March, 1584, to Walter 
Raleigh, who sent out, in April, Captains Barlow 
and Amadas in two vessels, to explore the coast of 
America from Florida northward, and report upon 
any region he found fit for colonising. They 
came back in September with an excellent account 
of the lands. Her Majesty then named them, as 
a maiden queen, Virginia. The Queen's age was, 
at that time, fifty- one. Her favour to Raleigh 
was due to his merit, to his bold spirit of enter- 
prise, and to the large expense he was incurring 
for the establishment of colonies in the New 
World that might enable England to draw, like 
Spain, new strength from beyond the seas. 
Raleigh's undertakings put him to great cost, and 
the Queen freelv supplied money. In March, 
1584, in 1585, in August, 1587, in May, 1589, she 
gave him grants of a licence to export woolleu 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

broadcloths, on payment of reserve rent to herself, 
a licence which was worth .£4,000 a year. In 
1584 she also granted him the "Farm of Wines," 
which he sub-let for £700 a year. In 1585 he 
was knighted. In July, 1585, he was made 
successor to a deceased Earl of Bedford, in the 
office of Lord Warden of the Stannaries. In Sep- 
tember. 1585, he was made Lieutenant of Corn- 
wall, and soon afterwards Vice- Admiral of Corn- 
wall and Devon. In 1586 he received a grant of 
12,000 acres of forfeited land in Ireland. In 1587 
he succeeded Sir Christopher Hatton as Captain of 
the Queen's Guard. This was an unpaid office of 
honour about the court, but in the same year the 
Queen granted to Raleigh all the estates and pro- 
perty that fell to the crown by the attainder of 
Anthony Babington for conspiring to effect the 
murder of Elizabeth and to set Mary on the throne. 
This enriched Raleigh with manors and lands in 
three counties, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Notting- 
hamshire, besides the little patrimony that he 
had in Devonshire. 

The rise in substantial favour went side by side 
with Raleigh's work for the colonising of Virginia. 
In the spring of 1585 he equipped a fleet of seven 
vessels, in charge of his cousin, Sir Richard G-ren- 
ville, to found a colony of which Ralph Lane, 
joined in the charge, was to be governor. Lane 
was left with 105 colonists on the island of 
Roanoake. In 1586 they were brought back, 
rescued by Drake, after they had ruined themselves 
by ill-treatment of the natives. They brought 
back with them tobacco, which was then first 



INTRODUCTION. 



introduced into England. Thomas Ilariot, one of 
their number, published in 1588, " A Brief and 
True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia," 
in which he described the way of smoking^ the 
herb which they call appawoc, but the Spaniards 
tobacco. " They used to take the fume or smoke 
thereof by sucking it through pipes made of clay 
into their stomach and head." In May, 1587, 
Raleigh sent out another colony of a hundred and 
fifty householders under Captain John White, 
again to fail. Between 1587 and 1602 Raleigh 
fitted out, at his own charges, no fewer than five 
Virginia expeditions, and at the very last he wrote 
of the land across the Atlantic, " I shall yet see it 
a great nation." 

Meanwhile he was at work in other ways. He 
fitted out and despatched privateers that brought 
home from the high seas wealth of Spain. He 
endeavoured to turn famine-stricken wildernesses 
in Cork, Waterford, and Tipperary into regions of 
prosperous industry. In 1588 Raleigh's ship was 
lost in pursuit of the Spaniards after discomfiture 
of the Armada. In 1589 he was in Ireland 
making the first plantation of potatoes about his 
house at Youghal, and in friendly intercourse with 
Spenser, whom he brought to court in 1590, to pre- 
sent to Elizabeth the first three books of his Faerie 
Queene, which were then published in London. 

In 1592 Raleigh fell into displeasure with 
Elizabeth about his marriage with Elizabeth 
Throgmorton, one of her maids of honour. Soon 
afterwards he planned that expedition to Guiana 
which this volume describes. Tempted by Spanish 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

tales of El Dorado, lie sailed in February, 1595, 
and published the account of his adventures after 
his return. 

With all his force of character there was a 
proud reserve in Raleigh that turned many 
against him, and decreased the number of his 
friends. There was a faction bitterly opposed to 
him, by which King James of Scotland was made 
to regard him as a personal enemy. When James 
VI. of Scotland became James I. of England, 
Raleigh fell into his enemies' hands. Within the 
year, Raleigh was tried at Winchester on a false 
charge of conspiring to place Arabella Stuart on 
the throne ; was sentenced to death, and reprieved 
without any annulling of the sentence. During 
the next twelve years he was a prisoner in the 
Tower, where he wrote the great fragment of his 
" History of the World;" published in 1614 as a 
large folio. Its record reached only to the second 
Macedonian War. In 1616, — the year of Shakes- 
peare's death, — Raleigh obtained release by inspir- 
ing hope in the king of gold from El Dorado. He 
was provided with a patent for establishing a settle- 
ment in Guiana, and sent on his second voyage. 
The expedition failed. Raleigh returned in 1618, 
having lost his eldest son in an attack on the new 
Spanish settlement of St. Thomas; and on the 
29th of October, 1618, King James obliged the 
King of Spain by having the fifteen year old sen- 
tence carried out. Sir Walter Raleigh thus died 
on the scaffold at the age of sixty -six. This close 
of his story gives special interest to his own re- 
cord of his expeditions to Guiana. H. M. 



The Discovery of Guiana. 



On Thursday, the 6th of February, in the year 
1595, we departed England, and the Sunday 
following ha'd sight of the North Cape of Spain, 
the wind for the most part continuing prosperous ; 
we passed in sight of the Burlings and the rock, 
and so onwards for the Canaries, and fell in with 
Fuerte Ventura the 17th of the same month, 
where we spent two or three days, and relieved our 
companies with some fresh meat. From thence we 
coasted by the Grand Canaria, and so to Teneriife, 
and stayed there for the Lioris Whelp, your lord- 
ship's ship, and for Captain Amys Preston and the 
rest ; but when after seven or eight days we found 
them not, we departed, and directed our course for 
Trinidad with mine own ship, and a small bark of 
Captain Cross's only (for we had before lost sight of 
a small gallego on the coast of Spain, which came 
with us from Plymouth) : we arrived at Trinidad 



12 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

the 2 2nd of March, casting anchor at Point Curiapan, 
which the Spaniards call Punto de Gallo, which is 
situate in eight degrees or thereabouts : we abode 
there four or five days, and in all that time we 
came not to the speech of any Indian or Spaniard ; 
on the coast we saw a fire, as we sailed from the 
point Carao towards Curiapan, but for fear of the 
Spaniards, none durst come to speak with us. I 
myself coasted it in my barge close aboard the 
shore, and landed in every cove, the better to know 
the island, while the ships kept the channel. From 
Curiapan, after a few days, we turned up north-east, 
to recover that place which the Spaniards call 
Puerto de los Hispanioles, and the inhabitants Con- 
querabia, and as before (re-victualling my barge), 
I left the ships and kept by the shore, the better 
to come to speech with some of the inhabitants, 
and also to understand the rivers, watering-places, 
and ports of the island, which (as it is rudely done) 
my purpose is to send your lordship after a few 
days. From Curiapan I came to a port and seat 
of Indians called Parico, where we found a fresh 
water river, but saw no people. From thence I 
rowed to another port, called by the naturals 
Piche, and by the Spaniards Tierra de Brea, In 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 13 

the way between both were divers little brooks of 
fresh water, and one salt river that had store of 
oysters upon the branches of the trees, and were 
very salt and well tasted. All their oysters grew 
upon those boughs and sprays, and not on the 
ground ; the like is commonly seen in the West 
Indies and elsewhere. This tree is described by 
Andrew Theuet in his French " Antartique," and 
the form figured in his book as a plant very strange, 
and by Pliny in his twelfth book of his " Natural 
History." But in this island, as also in Guiana, 
there are very many of them. 

At this point, called Tierra de Brea, or Piche, 
there is that abundance of stone pitch, that all the 
ships of the world may therewith be laden from 
thence, and we made trial of it in trimming our 
ships to be most excellent good, and melteth not 
with the sun as the pitch of Norway, and therefore 
for ships trading the south parts very profitable. 
From hence we went to the mountain foot called 
Annaperima, and so passing the river Carone, on 
which the Spanish city was seated, we met with 
our ships at Puerto de los Hispanioles, or Con- 
querabia. 

The island of Trinidad hath the form of a 



14 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

sheep-hook, and is but narrow ; the north part is 
very mountainous ; the soil is very excellent, and 
will bear sugar, ginger, or any other commodity 
that the Indies yield. It hath store of deer, wild 
porks, fruits, fish, and fowl. It hath also for bread 
sufficient maize, cassavi, and of those roots and 
fruits which are common everywhere in the West 
Indies. It hath divers beasts, which the Indies 
have not ; the Spaniards confessed that they found 
grains of gold in some of the rivers, but they, 
having a purpose to enter Guiana (the magazine of 
all rich metals), cared not to spend time in the search 
thereof any farther. This island is called by the 
people thereof Cairi, and in it are divers nations : 
those about Parico are called Iaio ; those at Punto 
Carao are of the Arwacas, and between Carao and 
Curiapan they are called Salvaios ; between Carao 
and Punto Galera are the Nepoios, and those about 
the Spanish city term themselves Carinepagotos. 
Of the rest of the nations, and of other ports and 
rivers, I leave to speak here, being impertinent to 
my purpose, and mean to describe them as they 
are situate in the particular plot and description of 
the island, three parts whereof I coasted with my 
barge that I might the better describe it. 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 15 

Meeting with the ships at Puerto de los 
Hispanioles, we found at the landing place a 
company of Spaniards who kept a guard at the 
descent, and they offering a sign of peace; I sent 
Captain Whiddon to speak with them, whom 
afterward, to my great grief, I left buried in the 
said island after my return from Guiana, being a 
man most honest and valiant. The Spaniards 
seemed to be desirous to trade with us, and to enter 
into terms of peace, more for doubt of their own 
strength than for ought else, and in the end, upon 
pledge, some of them came aboard ; the same even- 
ing there stole also aboard us in a small canoe two 
Indians, the one of them being a cazique, or lord 
of people called Cantyman, who had the year 
before been with Captain Whiddon, and was of his 
acquaintance. By this Cantyman we understood 
what strength the Spaniards had, how far it was 
to their city, and of Don Anthonio de Berreo, the 
governor, who was said to be slain in his second 
attempt of Guiana, but was not. 

"While we remained at Puerto de los Hispanioles 
some Spaniards came aboard us to buy linen of the 
company, and such other things as they wanted, 
and also to view our ships and company, all which 



16 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

I entertained kindly and feasted after our manner ; 
by means whereof I learned of one and another as 
much of the estate of Guiana as I could, or as they 
knew, for those poor soldiers having been many 
years without wine, a few draughts made them 
merry, in which mood they vaunted of Guiana and 
of the riches thereof, and all what they knew of 
the ways and passages, myself seeming to purpose 
nothing less than the entrance or discovery thereof, 
but bred in them an opinion that I was bound 
only for the relief of those English which I had 
planted in Virginia, whereof the bruit was come 
among them, which I had performed in my return 
if extremity of weather had not forced me from 
the said coast. 

I found occasions for staying in this place for 
two causes : the one was to be revenged of Berreo, 
who the year before betrayed eight of Captain 
Whiddon's men, and took them while he departed 
from them to seek the E Bonaventure, which 
arrived at Trinidad the day before from the East 
Indies ; in whose absence Berreo sent a canoe 
aboard the pinnace only with Indians and dogs, in- 
viting the company to go with them into the woods 
to kill a deer, who, like wise mp>n, in the absence of 



THE DISCOVERT OF GUIANA. 17 

their captain followed the Indians, but were no 
sooner one arquebuse shot from the shore, buo 
Berreo's soldiers lying in ambush had them all, 
notwithstanding that he had given his word to 
Captain Whiddon that they should take water 
and wood safely ; the other cause of my stay was, 
for that by discourse with the Spaniards I daily 
learned more and more of Guiana, of the rivers 
and passages, and of the enterprise of Berreo, by 
what means or fault he failed, and how he meant 
to prosecute the same. 

While we thus spent the time I was assured by 
another cazique of the north side of the island 
that Berreo had sent to Marguerita and to Cumana 
for soldiers, meaning to have given me a cassado 
at parting, if it had been possible. For although 
he had given order through all the island that no 
Indian should come aboard to trade with me upon 
pain of hanging and quartering (having executed 
two of them for the same, which I afterwards 
found), yet every night there came some with most 
lamentable complaints of his cruelty : how he had 
divided the island, and given to every soldier a 
part ; that he made the ancient Caziqui, which were 
lords of the country, to be their slaves, that he 



18 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

kept them in chains, and dropped their naked 
bodies with burning bacon, and such other tor- 
ments, which I found afterwards to be true ; 
for in the city, after I entered the same, there 
were five of the lords, or little kings (which 
they call Caziqui in the West Indies), in one chain 
almost dead of famine, and wasted with torments : 
these are called in their own language Acarewana, 
and now of late, since English, French, and Spanish 
are come among them, they call themselves cap- 
tains, because they perceive that the chiefest of every 
ship is called by that name. Those five captains 
in the chain were called Wannawanare, Carroaori, 
Maquarima, Tarroopanama, and Aterima. So as 
both to be revenged of the former wrong, as also 
considering that to enter Guiana by small boats, to 
depart 400 or 500 miles from my ships, and to 
leave a garrison in my back interested in the same 
enterprise, who also daily expected supplies out of 
Spain, I should have savoured very much of the 
ass ; and therefore, taking a time of most advantage, 
I set upon the Corp du guard in the evening, and 
having put them to the sword, sent Captain Cal- 
feild onwards with sixty soldiers, and myself 
followed with forty more, and so took their nevr 



THE DISCOVEBY OF GUIANA. 19 

city, which they called St. Joseph, by break of day ; 
they abode not any fight after a few shot, and all 
being dismissed but only Berreo and his com- 
panion, I brought them with me aboard, and at 
the instance of the Indians, I set their new city of 
St. Joseph on fire. 

The same day arrived Captain George Gifford 
with your lordship's ship, and Captain Keymis, 
whom I lost on the coast of Spain, with the gallego, 
and in them divers gentlemen, and others, which 
to our little army was a great comfort and supply. 

We then hastened away towards our purposed 
discovery, and first I called all the captains of the 
island together that were enemies to the Spaniards, 
for there were some which Berreo had brought out 
of other countries, and planted there to eat out 
and waste those that were natural of the place ; and 
by my Indian interpreter, which I carried out of 
England, I made them understand that I was the 
servant of a queen, who was the great Oazique 
of the north, and a virgin, and had more Caziqui 
under her than there were trees in their island ; 
that she was an enemy to the Castellani in respect 
of their tyranny and oppression, and that she de- 
livered all such nations about her as were by them 



20 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

oppressed, and having freed all the coast of the 
northern world from their servitude, had sent me 
to free them also, and withal to defend the country 
of Guiana from their invasion and conquest. I 
showed them her Majesty's picture, which they so 
admired and honoured as it had been easy to have 
brought them idolatrous thereof. 

The like and a more large discourse I made to 
the rest of the nations, both in my passing to 
Guiana and to those of the borders, so as in that 
part of the world her Majesty is very famous and 
admirable, whom they now call " Ezrabeta Cassi- 
puna Aquerewana," which is as much as " Eliza- 
beth, the great princess, or greatest commander." 
This done, we left Puerto de los Hispanioles, and 
returned to Curiapan, and having Berreo my 
prisoner, I gathered from him as much of Guiana 
as he knew. 

This Berreo is a gentleman, well descended, and 
had long served the Spanish king in Milan, Naples, 
the Low Countries, and elsewhere, very valiant 
and liberal, and a gentleman of great assuredness 
and of a great heart. I used him according to his 
estate and worth in all things I could, according to 
the small means I had. 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA, 21 

I sent Captain Whiddon the year before to get 
what knowledge he could of Guiana, and the end 
of my journey at this time was to discover and 
enter the same, but my intelligence was far from 
truth, for the country is situate above six hundred 
English miles further from the sea than I was 
made believe it had been, which afterward under- 
standing to be true by Berreo, I kept it from the 
knowledge of my company, who else would never 
have been brought to attempt the same ; of which 
six hundred miles I passed four hundred, leaving 
my ships so far from me at anchor in the sea, 
which was more of desire to perform that discovery 
than of reason, especially having such poor and 
weak vessels to transport ourselves in ; for in the 
bottom of an old gallego which I caused to be 
fashioned like a galley, and in one barge, two 
wherries, and a ship's boat of the Lion's Whdp, we 
carried one hundred persons and their victuals for 
a month in the same, being all driven to lie in the 
rain and weather in the open air, in the burning 
sun, and upon the hard boards, and to dress our 
meat and to carry all manner of furniture in them, 
wherewith they were so pestered and unsavoury, 
that what with victuals being most fish, with the 



22 THE DISCOVERT OP GUIANA. 

wet clothes of so many men thrust together, and 
the heat of the sun, I will undertake there was 
never any prison in England that could be found 
more unsavoury and loathsome, especially to 
myself, who had for many, years before been dieted 
and cared for in a sort far differing. 

If Captain Preston had not been persuaded that 
he should have come too late to Trinidad to have 
found us there (for the month was expired which 
I promised to tarry for him there ere he could 
recover the coast of Spain), but that it had pleased 
God he might have joined with us, and that we 
had entered the country but some ten days sooner, 
ere the rivers were overflown, we had adventured 
either to have gone to the great city of Manoa, or 
at least taken so many of the other cities and 
towns nearer at hand as would have made a royal 
return. Bub it pleased not God so much to favour 
me at this time ; if it shall be my lot to prosecute 
the same, I shall willingly spend my life therein ; 
and if any else shall be enabled thereunto, and 
conquer the same, I assure him thus much, he 
shall perform more than ever was done in Mexico 
by Cortez, or in Peru by Pizarro, whereof the one 
conquered the Empire of Montezuma, the other of 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 23 

Guascar and Atabalipa, and whatsoever prince 
shall possess it, that prince shall be lord of more 
gold and of a more beautiful empire, and of more 
cities and people, than either the king of Spain or 
the great Turk. 

But because there may arise many doubts, and 
how this empire of Guiana is become so populous, 
and adorned with so many great cities, towns, 
temples, and treasures, I thought good to make it 
known that the emperor now reigning is descended 
from those magnificent princes of Peru, of whose 
large territories, of whose policies, conquests, 
edifices, and riches, Pedro de Cieza, Francisco 
Lopez, and others, have written large discourses ; 
for when Francisco Pizarro, Diego Almagro, and 
others, conquered the said empire of Peru, and had 
put to death Atabalipa, son to Guaynacapa, which 
Atabalipa had formerly caused his eldest brother 
Guascar to be slain, one of the younger sons of 
Guaynacapa fled out of Peru, and took with him 
many thousands of those soldiers of the empire 
called Oreiones, and with those and many 
others which, followed him he vanquished all 
that tract and valley of America which is 
situate between the great rivers of Amazons 



24 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA 

and Baraquona, otherwise called Oiinoco and 
Maranion. 

The empire of Guiana is directly east from Peru 
towards the sea, and lieth under the equinoctial 
line, and it hath more abundance of gold than any 
part of Peru, and as many or more great cities 
than ever Peru had when it nourished most. It is 
governed by the same laws, and the emperor and 
people observe the same religion and the same 
form and policies in government as was used in 
Peru, not differing in any part ; and as I have 
been assured by such of the Spaniards as have 
seen Manoa, the imperial city of Guiana, which 
the Spaniard* call El Dorado, that for the great- 
ness, for the riches, and for the excellent seat, it 
far exceedeth any of the world, at least of so much 
of the world as is known to the Spanish nation ; 
it is founded upon a lake of salt water of two hun- 
dred leagues long, like unto mare caspiu. And ii 
we compare it to that of Peru, and but read the 
report of Francisco Lopez and others, it will seem 
more than credible ; and because we may judge of 
the one by the other, I thought good to insert part 
of the 120th chapter of Lopez, in his "General 
History of the Indies," wherein he describeth the 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 25 

court and magnificence of Guaynacapa, ancestor to 
the Emperor of Guiana, whose very words are 
these : — " Todo el servicio de su casa, mesa, j 
cozina era de oro y de plata, y quando menos 
de plata y cobre por mas rezio. Tenia en su 
recamara estatuas huecas de oro que parecian 
gigantes, y las figuras al propio y tamanon de 
quantos animales, aues, arboles, y yeruas produze 
la tierra, y de quantos peces cria la mar y aguas 
de sus reynos. Tenia assi mesmo sogas, cosfcales, 
cestas, y troxes de oro y plata, rimeros de palos de 
oro, que pareciessen lenna raiada para quemar. 
En fin no auia cosa en su tierra, que no la tuuiesse 
de oro contrahecha : y aun dizen, que tenian los 
Ingas un vergel en una isla cerca de la Puna, donde 
se yuan a holgar quando querian mar, que tenia 
la ortaliza, las flores, y arboles de oro y plata, 
invencion y grandeza hasta entonces nunca vista. 
Allende de todo esto tenia infinitissima cantidad de 
plata y oro por labrar en el Cuzco, que se perdio 
por la muerte de Guascar, ca los Indios lo escon- 
dieron, viendo que los Espanoles se lo tomauan y 
embriauan a Espana." That is : " All the vessels 
of his home, table, and kitchen were of gold and 
silver, and the meanest of silver and copper fof 



26 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

strength and hardness of the metal. He had in 
his wardrobe hollow statues of gold which seemed 
giants, and the figures in proportion and bigness 
of all the beasts, birds, trees, and herbs that the 
earth bringeth forth, and of all the fishes that the 
sea or waters of his kingdom breedeth. He had 
also ropes, budgets, chests, and troughs of gold and 
silver, heaps of billets of gold, that seemed wood 
marked out to burn. Finally, there was nothing 
in his country whereof he had not the counterfeit 
in gold. Yea, and they say the Ingas had a 
garden of pleasure in an island near Puna, where 
they went to recreate themselves when they 
would take the air of the sea, which had all kind 
of garden herbs, flowers, and trees of gold and 
silver, an invention and magnificence till then 
never seen. Besides all this, he had an infinite 
quantity of silver and gold unwrought in Cuzco, 
which was lost by the death of Guascar, for the 
Indians hid it, seeing that the Spaniards took it 
and sent it into Spain." 

And in the 117th chapter, Francisco Pizarro 
caused the gold and silver of Atabalipa to be 
weighed after he had taken it, which Lopez settetb 
down in these words following : — 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 27 

" Hallaron cinquenta y dos mil marcos de buena 
plata, y un millon y trezientos y veinte y seys mil, 
y quinientos pesos de oro," which is : " They found 
fifty and two thousand marks of good silver, and 
one million, and three hundred twenty and six 
thousand and five hundred pesoes of gold." 

Now, although these reports may seem strange, 
yet if we consider the many millions which are 
daily brought out of Peru into Spain, we may 
easily believe the same, for we find that by the 
abundant treasure of that country the Spanish 
king vexeth all the princes of Europe, and is be- 
come in a few years, from a poor king of Castille, 
the greatest monarch of this part of the world, 
and likely every day to increase if other princes 
forslow the good occasions offered, and suffer him 
to add this empire to the rest, which by far ex- 
ceedeth all the rest; if his gold now endanger 
us, he will then be unresistible. Such of the 
Spaniards as afterward endeavoured the conquest 
thereof (whereof there have been many, as shall 
be declared hereafter) thought that this Inga (of 
whom this emperor now living is descended) took 
his way by the river Amazons by that branch 
which is called Papamene, for by that way followed 



28 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

Orellana (by the commandment of the Marquis 
Pizarro in the year 1542), whose name the river 
also beareth this day, which is also by others called 
Maranon, although Andrew Theuet doth affirm 
that between Maraiion and Amazons there are one 
hundred and twenty leagues ; but sure it is that 
those rivers have one head and beginning, and that 
Maranon which Theuet describeth is but a branch 
of the Amazons or Orellana, of which I will speak 
more in another place. It was also attempted by 
Diego de Ordaz, but whether before Orellana or 
after I know not ; but it is now little less than 
seventy years since that Ordaz, a knight of the 
order of St. Iago, attempted the same ; and it was 
in the year 1542 that Orellana discovered the 
river Amazons; but the first that ever saw Manoa 
was Juan Martinez, master of the munition to 
Ordaz. At a port called Morequito, in Guiana, 
there lieth at this day a great anchor of Ordaz's 
ship, and this port is some three hundred miles 
within the land, upon the great River Orinoco. 

I rested at this port four days : twenty days 
after I left the ships at Curiapan. The relation 
of this Martinez (who was the first that discovered 
Manoa), his success and end, is to be seen in the 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 29 

Chauneery of St. Juan de Puerto Rico, whereof 
Berreo had a copy, which appeared to be the 
greatest encouragement as well to Berreo as to 
others that formerly attempted the discovery and 
conquest. Orellano, after he failed of the dis- 
covery of Guiana by the said river of Amazons, 
passed into Spain, and there obtained a patent of 
the king for the invasion and conquest, but died 
by sea about the islands, and his fleet being 
severed by tempest, the action for that time pro- 
ceeded not. Diego Ordaz followed the enter- 
prise, and departed Spain with 600 soldiers and 30 
horse, who, arriving on the coast of Guiana, was 
slain in a mutiny with the most part of such as 
favoured him, as also of the rebellious part, in so 
much as his ships perished, and few or none 
returned, neither was it certainly known what 
became of the said Ordaz, until Berreo found the 
anchor of his ship in the river of Orinoco ; but 
it was supposed, and so it is written by Lopez, 
that he perished on the seas, and of other writers 
diversely conceived and reported. And hereof it 
came that Martinez entered so far within the 
land, and arrived at that city of Inga the Emperor, 
for it chanced that while Ordaz, with his army, 



30 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

rested at the port of Morequito (who was either 
the first or second that attempted Guiana), by some 
negligence, the whole store of powder provided for 
the service was set on fire, and Martinez, having 
the chief charge, was condemned by the General 
Ordaz to be executed forthwith : Martinez, being 
much favoured by the soldiers, had all the means 
possible procured for his life, but it could not be 
obtained in any other sort than this : That he 
should be set into a canoe alone, without any 
victual, only with his arms, and so turned loose 
into the great river ; but it pleased God that the 
canoe was carried down the stream, and that cer- 
tain of the Guianians met it the same evening, 
and having not at any time seen any Christian, 
nor any man of that colour, they carried Martinez 
into the land to be wondered at, and so from town 
to town, until he came to the great city of Manoa, 
the seat and residence of Inga the Emperor. The 
Emperor, after he had beheld him, knew him to be 
a Christian (for it was not long before that his 
brethren, Guascar and Atabalipa, were vanquished 
by the Spaniards in Peru), and caused him to be 
lodged in his palace, and well entertained : he 
lived seven months in Manoa, but not suffered to 



THE DISCOVERT OF GUIANA. 31 

wander into the country anywhere : he was also 
brought thither all the way blindfold, led by the 
Indians, until he came to the entrance of Manoa 
itself, and was fourteen or fifteen days in the 
passage : he avowed at his death that he entered 
the city at noon, and then they uncovered his 
face, and that he travelled all that day till night 
through the city, and the next day from sun 
rising to sun setting, ere he came to the palace 
of Inga. After that Martinez had lived seven 
months in Manoa, and began to understand the 
language of the country, Inga asked him whether 
he desired to return into his own country or 
would . willingly abide with him : but Martinez, 
not desirous to stay, obtained the favour of Inga 
to depart, with whom he sent divers Guianians to 
conduct him to the river Orinoco, all laden with 
as much gold as they could carry, which he gave 
to Martinez at his departure : but when he was 
arrived near the river's side, the borderers, which 
are called Orenocoponi, robbed him and his 
Guianians of all the treasure (the borderers being 
at that time at war with Inga, and not conquered), 
save only of two great bottles of gourds, which 
were filled with beads of gold curiously wrought, 






32 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA, 

which those Orenocoponi thought had been no 
other thing than his drink or meat or grain for 
food with which Martinez had liberty to pass, and 
so in canoes he fell down by the river of Orinoco 
to Trinidad, and from thence to Marguerita, and 
so to St. Juan de Puerto Rico, where remaining a 
long time for passage into Spain, he died. In the 
time of his extreme sickness, and when he was 
without hope of life, receiving the sacrament at 
the hands of his confessor, he delivered these 
things, with the relation of his travels, and also 
called for his calabaza or gourds of the gold beads, 
which he gave to the Church and friars to be 
prayed for. This Martinez was he that christened 
the city of Manoa by the name of El Dorado, and 
as Berreo informed me upon this occasion. Those 
Guianians, and also the borderers, and all others in 
that tract which I have seen, are marvellous great 
drunkards, in which vice I think no nation can 
compare with them : and at the times of their 
solemn feasts, when the Emperor carouseth with 
his captains, tributaries, and governors, the man- 
ner is thus : All those that pledge him are first 
stripped naked; and their bodies anointed all over 
with a kind of white balsam (by them called Curcai), 



THE DISCOVERY OF GHJIAWA. 33 

of which there is great plenty, and yet very dear, 
amongst them, and it is of all others the most 
precious, whereof we have had good experience : 
when they are anointed all over, certain servants 
of the Emperor having prepared gold made into 
fine powder, blow it through hollow canes upon 
their naked bodies, until they be all shining 
from the foot to the head, and in this sort they 
sit drinking by twenties and hundreds, and con- 
tinue in drunkenness sometimes six or seven days 
together; the same is also confirmed by a letter 
written into Spain which was intercepted, which 
Master Robert Dudley told me he had seen. Upon 
this sight, and for the abundance of gold which he 
saw in the city, the images of gold in their temples, 
the plates, armours, and shields of gold which they 
use in the wars, he called it El Dorado. After 
Oreliano, who was employed by Pizarro (afterwards 
Marquis Pizarro, conqueror and governor of Peru), 
and the death of Ordace and Martynes, one Pedro 
de Osua, a knight of Navarre, attempted Guiana, 
taking his way from Peru, and built his brigan- 
dines upon a river called Oia, which riseth to the 
southward of Quito, and is very great. This river 
falleth into the Amazons, by which Osua with his 
b— 67 



34 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

companies descended, and came out of that pro- 
vince which is called Mutylones ; and it seemeth 
to me that this empire is reserved for her Majesty 
and the English nation, by reason of the hard suc- 
cess which all these and other Spaniards found in 
attempting the same, whereof I will speak briefly, 
though impertinent in some sort to my purpose. 
This Pedro de Osua had among his troops a 
Biscayan called Agiri, a man meanly born, and 
bare no other office than a sergeant or alferez ; but 
after certain months, when the soldiers were 
grieved with travels and consumed with famine, 
and that no entrance could be found by the 
branches or body of the Amazons, this Agiri raised 
a mutiny, of which he made himself the head, and 
so prevailed as he put Osua to the sword, and all 
his followers, taking on him the whole charge and 
commandment, with a purpose not only to make 
himself Emperor of Guiana, but also of Peru, and 
of all that side of the West Indies. He had of his 
party seven hundred soldiers, and of those many 
promised to draw in other captains and companies 
to deliver up towns and forts in Peru, but neither 
finding by the said river any passage into Guiana, 
nor any possibility to return towards Peru by the 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 35 

same Amazons, by reason that the descent of the 
river made so great a current, he was enforced 
to disembark at the mouth of the said Ama- 
zons, which cannot be less than a thousand 
leagues from the place where they embarked : 
from thence he coasted the land till he arrived 
at Marguerita, to the north of Mompatar, which 
is at this day called Puerto de Tyranno, for 
that he there slew Don Juan de villa Andreda, 
governor of Marguerita, who was father to Don 
Juan Sermiento, governor of Marguerita when Sir 
John Burgh landed there, and attempted the island. 
Agiri put to the sword all others in the island 
that refused to be of his party, and took with 
him certain Cemerones, and other desperate com- 
panions. From thence he went to Cumana, and 
there slew the governor, and dealt in all as at 
Marguerita : he spoiled all the coast of Caracas, 
and the province of Venezuela, and of Rio de 
Hache ; and as I remember, it was the same year 
that Sir John Hawkins sailed to Saint Juan de 
Lua in the Jesus of Lubeck, for himself told me 
that he met with such a one upon the coast that 
rebelled, and had sailed down all the river of 
Amazons. Agiri from hence landed about Sancta 



36 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

Marta, and sacked it also, putting to death so 
many as refused to be his followers ; purposing to 
invade Nuevo reyno de Granada, and to sack 
Pampelone, Merida, Lagrita, Tunia, and the rest 
of the cities of Nuevo reyno, and from thence 
again to enter Peru. But in a fight in the said 
Nuevo reyno he was overthrown, and finding no 
way to escape, he first put to the sword his own 
children, foretelling thein that they should not 
live to be defamed or upbraided by the Spaniards 
after his death, who would have termed them 
the children of a traitor or tyrant, and that 
since he could not make them princes, he would 
yet deliver them from shame and reproach. These 
were the ends and tragedies of Oreliano, Ordace, 
Osua, Martynes, and Agiri. 

After these followed Geronimo Ortal de Saragosa 
with 1 30 soldiers, who, failing his entrance by sea, 
was cast with the current on the coast of Paria, 
and peopled about S. Miguell de Neueri. It was 
then attempted by Don Pedro de Sylva, a Portu- 
guese, of the family of Rigomes de Sylva, and by 
the favour which Rigomes had with the king he 
was set out, but he also shot wide of the mark, for 
being departed from Spain with his fleet, he 



THE DISCOVERT OF GUIANA. 37 

entered by Maraiion, or Amazons, where by the 
nations of the river and by the Amazons he was 
utterly overthrown, and himself and all his army 
defeated ; only seven escaped, and of those but two 
returned. 

After him came Pedro Hernandez de Serpa, and 
landed at Cumana, in the West Indies, taking his 
journey by land towards Orinoco, which may be 
some 120 leagues ; but ere he came to the borders of 
the said river he was set upon by a nation of Indians 
called Wikiri, and overthrown in sort, that of 300 
soldiers, horsemen, many Indians, and negroes, 
there returned but eighteen : others affirm that he 
was defeated in the very entrance of Guiana, at the 
first civil town of the Empire, called Macureguarai. 
Captain Preston, in taking S. Iago de Leon (which 
was by him and his companies very resolutely 
performed, being a great town and far within the 
land), held a gentleman prisoner, who died in his 
ship, that was one of the company of Hernandez 
de Serpa, and saved among those that escaped, 
who witnessed what opinion is held among the 
Spaniards thereabouts of the great riches of Guiana 
and El Dorado, the city of Inga. Another 
Spaniard was brought aboard me by Captain 



88 THE DISCOVERT OF GTJIANA. 

Preston, who told me, in the hearing of himself 
and divers other gentlemen, that he met with 
Berreo, camp-master at Caracas, when he came 
from the borders of Guiana, and that he saw with 
him forty of most pure plates of gold curiously 
wrought, and swords of Guiana decked and inlaid 
with gold, feathers garnished with gold, and divers 
rarities, which he carried to the Spanish king. 

After Hernandez de Serpa, it was undertaken by 
the Adelantado, Don Gonzales Cemenes de Casada, 
who was one of the chiefest in the conquest of 
Nuevo reyno, whose daughter and heir Don 
Anthonio de Berreo married : Gonzales sought the 
passage also by the river called Papamene, which 
riseth by Quito in Peru, and runneth south-east 100 
leagues, and then falleth into the Amazons, but he 
also failing the entrance, returned with the loss of 
much labour and cost ; I took one Captain George, 
a Spaniard that followed Gonzales in this enter- 
prise. Gonzales gave his daughter to Berreo, 
taking his oath and honour to follow the enterprise 
to the last of his substance and life, who since, as he 
hath sworn tome, hath spent 300,000 ducats in the 
same, and yet never could enter so far into the 
land as myself, with that poor troop, or rather a 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 39 

handful of men, being in all about 100 gentlemen, 
soldiers, rowers, boat-keepers, boys, and of all sorts : 
neither could any of the forepast undertakers, 
nor Berreo himself, discover the country, till now 
lately by conference with an ancient king called 
Carapana he got the true light thereof; for Berreo 
came above 1,500 miles ere he understood aught, 

7 O 7 

or could find any passage or entrance into any 
part thereof, yet he had experience of all these 
fore-named and divers others, and was persuaded of 
their errors and mistakings. Berreo sought it by 
the river Cassanar, which falleth into a great river 
called Pato ; Pato falleth into Meta, and Meta into 
Baraquan, which is also called Orinoco. 

He took his journey from Nuevo reyno de 
Granada, where he dwelt, having the inheritance of 
Gonzales Cemenes in those parts ; he was followed 
with 700 horse; he drove with him 1,000 head of 
cattle; he had also many women, Indians, and 
slaves. How all these rivers cross and encounter, 
how the country lieth and is bordered, the passage 
of Cemenes and of Berreo, mine own discovery 
and the way that I entered, with all the rest of the 
nations and rivers, your lordship shall receive in a 
large chart or map, which I have not yet finished, 



40 THE DISCOVERT OP GUIANA. 

and which I shall most humbly pray your lordship 
to secrete, and not to suffer it to pass your own 
hands ; for by a draft thereof all may be pre- 
vented by other nations. For I know it is this 
very year sought by the French, although by the 
way that they now take I fear it not much. It was 
also told me ere I departed England that Villiers 
the Admiral, was in preparation for the planting 
of the Amazons, to which river the French have 
made divers voyages, and returned much gold and 
other rarities. I spoke with a captain of a French 
ship that came from thence, his ship riding in 
Falmouth, the same year that my ships came first 
from Virginia. 

There was another this year in Helford that also 
came from thence, and had been fourteen months 
at an anchor in the Amazons, which were both very 
rich. Although, as I am persuaded, Guiana can- 
not be entered that way, yet no doubt the trade of 
gold from thence passeth by branches of rivers into 
the river Amazons, and so it doth on every 
hand far from the country itself, for those Indians 
of Trinidad have plates of gold from Guiana, 
and those cannibals of Dominica, which dwell in the 
islands by which our ships pass yearly to the Wes4 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 41 

Indies, also the Indians of Paria, those Indians 
called Tucaris, Chochi, Apotoniios, Cumanagotos, 
and all those other nations inhabiting near about 
the mountains that run from Paria through the 
province of Venezuela, and in Maracapana, and the 
cannibals of Guanipa, the Indians called Assawai, 
Coaca, Aiai, and the rest (all which shall be de- 
scribed in my description as they are situate), have 
plates of gold of Guiana. And upon the river 
Amazons The vet writeth that the people wear 
croissants of gold, for of that form the Guianians 
most commonly make them : so as from Dominica 
to Amazons, which is above 250 leagues, all the 
chief Indians in all parts wear of those plates of 
Guiana. Undoubtedly those that trade with the 
Amazons return much gold, which (as is aforesaid) 
cometh by trade from Guiana, by some branch 
of a river that falleth from the country into the 
Amazons, and either it is by the river which 
passeth by the nations called Tisnados, or by 
Carepuna. I made inquiries amongst the most 
ancient and best travelled of the Orinocoponi, 
and I had knowledge of all the rivers between 
Orinoco and Amazons, and was very desirous to 
understand the truth of those warlike women, 



42 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

because of some it is believed, of others not : and 
though I digress from my purpose, yet I will set 
down what hath been delivered me for truth of 
those women ; and I spoke with a cazique, or lord 
of people, that told me he had been in the river, 
and beyond it also. The nations of these women 
are on the south side of the river, in the provinces 
of Topago, and their chiefest strengths and retreats 
are in the islands situated on the south side of the 
entrance, some sixty leagues within the mouth of 
the said river. The memories of the like women 
are very ancient as well in Africa as in Asia ; in 
Africa those that had Medusa for queen, others 
in Scythia, near the rivers of Tanais and Thermadon; 
we find also that Lampedo and Marthesia were 
queens of the Amazons; in many histories they 
are verified to have been, and in divers ages and 
provinces ; but they which are not far from Guiana 
do accompany with men but once in a year, and 
for the time of one month, which I gather by their 
relation to be in April. At that time all the 
kings of the borders assemble, and the queens of 
the Amazons, and after the queens have chosen, 
the rest cast lots for their valentines. This one 
month they feast, dance, and drink of their wines 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 43 

in abundance, and the moon being done, they all 
depart to their own provinces. If they conceive 
and be delivered of a son, they return him to the 
father, if of a daughter, they nourish it and retain 
it ; and as many as have daughters send unto the 
begetters a present, all being desirous to increase 
their own sex and kind ; but that they cut off the 
right dug of the breast I do not find to be true. 
It was further told me that if in the wars they 
took any prisoners that they used to accompany 
with those also at what time soever, but in the end 
for eertain they put them to death ; for they are 
said to be very cruel and bloodthirsty, especially to 
such as offer to invade their territories. These 
Amazons have likewise great store of these plates 
of gold, which they recover by exchange chiefly 
for a kind of green stone, which the Spaniards 
call Piedras Hijadas, and we use for spleen stones, 
and for the disease of the stone we also esteem 
them : of these 1 saw divers in Guiana, and 
commonly every king or cazique hath one, which 
their wives for the most part wear, and they 
esteem them as great jewels. 

But to return to the enterprise of Berreo, who 
(as I have said) departed from Nuevo reyno with 



44 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

700 horse, besides the provisions above rehearsed. 
He descended by the river called Oassanar, which 
riseth in Nuevo reyno out of the mountains by 
the city of Tunia, from which mountain also 
springeth Pato, both which fall into the great 
river of Meta, and Meta riseth from a mountain 
joining to Pampelone in the same Nuevo reyno de 
Granada : these, as also Guaiare, which issueth out 
of the mountains by Timana, fall all into Baraquan, 
and are but of his heads, for at their coming to- 
gether they lose their names, and Baraquan farther 
down is also re-baptised by the name of Orinoco. 
On the other side of the city and hills of Timana 
riseth Rio Grande, which falleth into the sea by 
Santa Marta. By Cassanar first, and so into 
Meta, Berreo passed, keeping his horsemen on the 
banks, where the country served them for to march, 
and where otherwise he was driven to embark 
them in boats which he built for the purpose, 
and so came with the current down the river of 
Meta, and so into Baraquan. After he entered 
that great and mighty river, he began daily to 
lose of his companies both men and horse, for it 
is in many places violently swift, and hath forcible 
eddies, many sands, and divers islands sharp 



THE DISCOVERT OE GUIANA. 45 

pointed with rocks : but after one whole year, 
journeying for the most part by river, and the 
rest by land, he grew daily to fewer numbers, for 
both by sickness, and by encountering with the 
people of those regions through which he travelled, 
his companies were much wasted, especially by 
divers encounters with the Amapaiens ; and in all 
this time he never could learn of any passage into 
Guiana, nor any news or fame thereof, until he 
came to the farther border of the said Amapaia, 
eight days' journey from the river Caroli, which 
was the farthest river that we entered. Among 
those of Amapaia, Guiana was famous, but few of 
these people accosted Berreo, or would trade 
with him the first three months of the six which 
he sojourned there. This Amapaia is also mar- 
vellously rich in gold (as both Berreo confessed, 
and those of Guiana with whom I had most con- 
ference), and is situated upon Orinoco also. In 
this country Berreo lost sixty of his best soldiers, 
and most of all his horse that remained of his former 
years' travel; but in the end, after divers encounters 
with those nations, they grew to peace, and they 
presented Berreo with ten images of fine gold 
among divers other plates and croissants, which, as 



F ■>, 



46 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

he sware to me and divers other gentlemen, were 
so curiously wrought as he had not seen the like 
either in Italy, Spain, or the Low Countries ; and 
he was resolved that when they came to the hands 
of the Spanish king, to whom he had sent them 
by his camp-master, they would appear very ad- 
mirable, especially being wrought by such a nation 
as had no iron instrument at all, nor any of those 
helps which our goldsmiths have to work withal. 
The particular name of the people in Amapaia 
which gave him these pieces are called Anebas, 
and the river of Orinoco at that place is above 
twelve English miles broad, which may be from its 
outfall into the sea 700 or -800 miles. 

This province of Amapaia is a very low and 
marshy ground near the river, and by reason of the 
red water which issueth out in small branches 
through the fenny and boggy ground, there breed 
divers poisonous worms and serpents, and the 
Spaniards not suspecting, nor in any sort fore- 
knowing the danger, were infected with a grievous 
kind of flux by drinking thereof, and even the very 
horses poisoned therewith : insomuch as at the end 
of the six months that they abode there, of all 
their troops, there were not left above 1 20 soldiers. 



THE DISCOVERT OF GUIANA. 47 

and neither horse nor cattle. For Berreo hoped 
to have found Guiana by 1,000 miles nearer than 
it fell out to be in the end, by means whereof they 
sustained much want and much hunger, oppressed 
with grievous diseases, and all the miseries that 
could be imagined. I demanded of those in 
Guiana that had travelled Amapaia how they lived 
with that tawny or red water when they travelled 
thither, and they told me that after the sun was 
near the middle of the sky they used to fill their 
pots and pitchers with that water, but either before 
that time, or towards the setting of the sun, it was 
dangerous to drink of, and in the night strong 
poison. I learned also of divers other rivers of 
that nature among them which were also (while the 
sun was in the meridian) very safe to drink, and 
in the morning, evening, and night wonderfully 
dangerous and infective. From this province 
Berreo hasted away as soon as the spring and be- 
ginning of summer appeared, and sought his en- 
trance on the borders of Orinoco, on the south 
side, but there ran a ledge of so high and impas- 
sable mountains as he was not able by any means 
to march over them, continuing from the east sea, 
into which Orinoco falleth, even to Quito, in 



48 THE DISCOVERT OF GUIANA. 

Peru ; neither had he means to carry victual 
or munition over those craggy, high, and fast hills, 
being all woody, and those so thick and spiny, and 
so full of prickles, thorns, and briers, as it is im- 
possible to creep through them. He had also neither 
friendship among the people, nor any interpreter 
to persuade or treat with them ; and more, to his 
disadvantage, the Caziqui and kings of Amapaia 
had given knowledge of his purpose to the Gui- 
anians, and that he sought to sack and conquer the 
empire, for the hope of their so great abundance 
and quantities of gold. He passed by the mouths 
of many great rivers, which fell into Orinoeo 
both from the north and south, which I forbear to 
name for tediousness, and because they are more 
pleasing in describing than reading. 

Berreo affirmed that there fell a hundred rivers 
into Orinoco from the north and south, whereof 
the least was as big as Rio Grande, that passeth 
between Popayan and Nuevo reyno de Granada (Rio 
Grande being esteemed one of the most renowned 
rivers in all the West Indies, and numbered among 
the great rivers of the world) ; but he knew not 
the names of any of these, but Caroli only, neither 
from what nations they descended, neither to what 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 49 

provinces they led, for he had no means to dis- 
course with the inhabitants at any time : neither 
was he curious in these things, being utterly un- 
learned, and not knowing the east from the west. 
But of all these I got some knowledge, and of 
many more, partly by mine own travel, and the 
rest by conference : of some one I learned one, of 
others the rest, having with me an Indian that 
spoke many languages, and that of Guiana natur- 
ally. I sought out all the aged men, and such as 
were greatest travellers, and by the one and the 
other I came to understand the situations, the 
rivers, the kingdoms from the east sea to the bor- 
ders of Peru, and from Orinoco southward as far 
as Amazons or Marafion, and the regions of Maria 
Tamball, and of all the kings of provinces and 
captains of towns and villages, how they stood in 
terms of peace and war, and which were friends 
or enemies the one with the other, without which 
there can be neither entrance nor conquest in those 
parts, nor elsewhere. For by the dissension be- 
tween Guascar and Atabalipa, Pizarro conquered 
Peru, and by the hatred that the Traxcallians bare 
to Montezuma, Cortez was victorious over Mexico, 
without which both the one and the other had 



50 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

failed of their enterprise, and of the great honour 
and riches which they attained unto. 

Now Berreo began to grow into despair, and 
looked for no other success than his predecessors 
in this enterprise, until such time as he arrived at 
the Province of Emeria, towards the east sea and 
mouth of the river, where he found a nation of 
people very favourable, and the country full of all 
manner of victual. The king of this land is called 
Carapana, a man very wise, subtle, and of great ex- 
perience, being little less than one hundred years old. 
In his youth he was sent by his father into the island 
of Trinidad, by reason of civil war among themselves, 
and was bred at a village in that island called 
Parico; at that place in his youth he had seen 
many Christians, both French and Spanish, and 
went divers times with the Indians of Trinidad to 
Marguerita and Cumana, in the West Indies (for 
both those places have ever been relieved with 
victual from Trinidad), by reason whereof he grew 
of more understanding, and noted the difference of 
the nations, comparing the strength and arms of 
his country with those of the Christians, and ever 
after temporised so, as whosoever else did amiss, or 
was wasted by contention, Carapana kept himself 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 51 

and his country in quiet and plenty : he also held 
peace with Caribas or cannibals, his neighbours, 
and had free trade with all nations, whosoever else 
had war. 

Berreo sojourned and rested his weak troop in 
the town of Carapana six weeks, and from him 
learned the way and passage to Guiana, and the 
riches and magnificence thereof; but being then 
utterly unable to proceed, he determined to try his 
fortune another year, when he had renewed his pro- 
visions and re-gathered more force, which he hoped 
for as well out of Spain as from Nuevo reyno, 
where he had left his son, Don Anthonio Xemenes, 
to second him upon the first notice given of 
his entrance, and so for the present embarked him- 
self in canoes, and by the branches of Orinoco 
arrived at Tmridad, having from Carapana suffi- 
cient pilots to conduct him. From Trinidad he 
coasted Paria, and so recovered Marguerita : and 
having made relation to Don Juau Sermiento, the 
governor of his proceeding, and persuaded him of 
the riches of Guiana, he obtained fjom thence 
fifty soldiers, promising presently to return to 
Carapana, and so into Guiana. But Berreo meant 
nothing less at that time, for he wanted many pro- 



52 THE DISCOVERY OF GTJIANA. 

visions necessary for such an enterprise, and there- 
fore departing from Marguerita, seated himself in 
Trinidad, and from thence sent his camp-master 
and his sergeant-major back to the borders to dis- 
cover the nearest passage into the Empire, as also 
to treat with the borderers, and to draw them to 
his party and love, without which he knew he 
could neither pass safely, nor in any sort be re- 
lieved with victual or aught else. Carapana 
directed this company to a king called Morequito, 
assuring them that no man could deliver so much 
of Guiana as Morequito could, and that his dwell- 
ing was but five days' journey from Macureguarai, 
the first civil town of Guiana. 

Now your lordship shall understand that this 
Morequito, one of the greatest lords or kings of 
the borders of Guiana, had two or three years 
before been at Cumana and at Marguerita, in the 
West Indies, with great store of plates of gold, 
which he carried to exchange for such other things 
as he wanted in his own country, and was daily 
feasted, and presented by the governors of those 
places, and held amongst them some two months, 
in which time one Vides, governor of Cumana, 
wanted him to be his conductor into Guiana, being 



THE DISCOVERY OP GTJIANA. 53 

allured by those croissants and images of gold which 
he brought with him to trade, as also by the 
ancient fame and magnificence of El Dorado : 
whereupon Vides sent into Spain for a patent to 
discover and conquer Guiana, not knowing of the 
precedence of Berreo's patent, which, as Berreo 
affirmeth, was signed before that of Yides : so as 
when Yides understood of Berreo, and that he 
had made entrance into that territory, and fore- 
gone his desire and hope, it was verily thought 
that Yides practised with Morequito to hinder and 
disturb Berreo in all he could, and not to suffer 
him to enter through his seignory, nor any of his 
companies, neither to victual nor guide them in 
any sort; for Yides, governor of Cumana, and 
Berreo were become mortal enemies, as well for that 
Berreo had got Trinidad into his patent with 
Guiana, as also in that he was by Berreo prevented 
in the journey of Guiana itself. Howsoever, it was 
I know not, but Morequito for a time dissembled 
his disposition, suffered Spaniards and a friar 
(which Berreo had sent to discover Manoa) to 
travel through his country, gave them a guide for 
Macureguarai, the first town of civil and apparelled 
people, from whence they had other guides to 



54 THE DISCOVERT OF GUIANA. 

bring them to Manoa, the great city of Inga ; and 
being furnished with those things, which they had 
learned of Carapana were of most price in Guiana, 
went onward, and in eleven days arrived at Manoa, 
as Berreo affirmeth for certain : although I could 
not be assured thereof by the lord which now 
governeth the Province of Morequito, for he told 
me that they got all the gold they had in other 
towns on this side Manoa, there being many very 
great and rich, and (as he said) built, like the towns 
of Christians, with many rooms. 

When these ten Spaniards were returned, and 
ready to put out of the border of Arrornaia, the 
people of Morequito set upon them, and slew them 
all but one, that swam the river, and took from 
them to the value of 40,000 pesoes of gold, and as 
it is written in the story of Job, one only lived to 
bring the news to Berreo, that both his nine soldiers 
and holy father were benighted in the said province. 
I myself spoke with the captains of Morequito 
that slew them, and was at the place where it was 
executed. Berreo, enraged herewithal, sent all the 
strength he could make into Arrornaia, to be re- 
venged of him, his people, and country ; but More- 
quito suspecting the same, fled over Orinoco, and 



THE DISCOVEEY OF GUIANA. 66 

through the territories of the Saima and Wikiri, 
recovered Cumana, where he thought himself very- 
safe with Yides, the governor. But Berreo sending 
for him in the king's name, and his messengers 
finding him in the house of one Fashardo on the 
sudden, ere it was suspected, so as he could not 
then be conveyed away, Vides durst not deny him, 
as well to avoid the suspicion of the practice, as 
also for that an holy father was slain by him and 
his people. Morequito offered Fashardo the weight 
of three quintals in gold to let him escape, but 
the poor Guianian, betrayed of all sides, was 
delivered to the camp-master of Berreo, and was 
presently executed. 

After the death of this Morequito, the soldiers 
of Berreo spoiled his territory, and took divers 
prisoners; among others, they took the uncle of 
Morequito, called Topiawari, who is now king of 
Arromaia (whose son I brought with me into Eng- 
land), and is a man of great understanding and 
policy : he is above one hundred years old, and yet 
of a very able body. The Spaniards led him in a 
chain seventeen days, and made him their guide 
from place to place between his country and 
Emeria, the province of Carapana aforesaid, and 



56 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

was at last redeemed for one hundred plates of 
gold, and divers stones called Piedras Hijadas, or 
spleen stones. Now Berreo, for executing of 
Morequito and other cruelties, spoils, and slaughters 
done in Arromaia, hath lost the love of the Orino- 
coponi, and of all the borderers, and dare not send 
any of his soldiers any farther into the land than 
to Carapana, which he calleth the port of Guiana : 
but from thence, by the help of Carapana, he had 
trade farther into the country, and always ap- 
pointed ten Spaniards to reside in Carapana's town; 
by whose favour, and by being conducted by his 
people, those ten searched the country thereabouts 
as well for mines as for other trades and com- 
modities. 

They have also gotten a nephew of Morequito, 
whom they have christened and named Don Juan, 
of whom they have great hope, endeavouring by all 
means to establish him in the said province. 
Among many other trades, those Spaniards used in 
canoes to pass to the rivers of Barema, Pawroma, 
and Dissequebe, which are on the south side of the 
mouth of Orinoco, and there buy women and 
children from the cannibals, which are of that 
barbarous nature, as they will for three or four 



THE DISCOVERT OP GUIANA. 57 

hatchets sell the sons and daughters of their own 
brethren and sisters, and for somewhat more even 
their own daughters : hereof the Spaniards make 
great profit, for buying a maid of twelve or 
thirteen years for three or four hatchets, they 
sell them again at Marguerita, in the West Indies, 
for fifty and one hundred pesoes, which is so many 
crowns. 

The master of my ship, John Douglas, took one 
of the canoes which came laden from thence with 
people to be sold, and the most of them escaped, 
yet of those he brought there was one as well 
favoured and as well shaped as ever I saw any 
in England, and afterward I saw many of them, 
which, but for their tawny colour, may be com- 
pared to any of Europe. They also trade in those 
rivers for bread of cassavi, of which they buy an 
hundred pound weight for a knife, and sell it at 
Marguerita for ten pesoes. They also recover 
great store of cotton, Brazil wood, and those beds 
^s hich they call hamacas, or Brazil beds, wherein 
in hot countries all the Spaniards use to lie com- 
monly, and in no other j neither did we ourselves 
while we were there. By means of which trades, 
for ransom of divers of the Guianians, and for ex> 



58 THE DISCOVEBY OF GUIANA. 

change of hatchets and knives, Berreo recovered 
some store of gold plates, eagles of gold, and 
images of men and divers birds, and despatched 
his camp-master for Spain with all that he had 
gathered, therewith to levy soldiers, and by 
the show thereof to draw others to the love of the 
enterprise : and having sent divers images as well 
of men as beasts, birds, and fishes so curiously 
wrought in gold, doubted not but to persuade the 
king to yield to him some further help, especially 
for that this land hath never been sacked, the 
mines never wrought, and in the Indies their 
works were well spent, and the gold drawn out 
with great labour and charge ; he also despatched 
messengers to his son in Nuevo reyno to levy all 
the forces he could, and to come down the river of 
Orinoco to Emeria, the province of Carapana, to 
meet him : he had also sent to Sant Iago de Leon, 
on the coast of the Caracas, to buy horses and 
mules. 

After I had thus learned of his proceedings past 
and purposed, I told him that I had resolved to 
see Guiana, and that it was the end of my journey, 
and the cause of my coming to Trinidad, as it was 
indeed (and for that purpose I sent James Whiddon 



THE DISCOVERY OP GTTIANA. 59 

the year before to get intelligence, with whom 
Berreo himself had speech at that time, and remem- 
bered how inquisitive James Whiddon was of his 
proceedings, and of the country of Guiana), Berreo 
was stricken into a great melancholy and sadness, 
and used all the arguments he could to dissuade 
me, and also assured the gentlemen of my company 
that it would be labour lost ; and that they should 
suffer many miseries if they proceeded. And first 
he delivered that I could not enter any of the 
rivers with any barque or pinnace, nor hardly 
with any ship's boat, it was so low, sandy, and 
full of flats, and that his companies were daily 
grounded in their canoes, which drew but twelve 
inches water He further said that none of the 
country would come to speak with us, but would 
all fly, and if we followed them to their dwellings 
they would burn their own towns, and besides that 
the way was long, the winter at hand, and that 
the rivers beginning once to swell, it was impossible 
to stem the current, and that we could not in those 
small boats by any means carry victual for half 
the time, and that (which indeed most discouraged 
my company) the kings and lords of all the 
borders and of Guiana had decreed that none of 



$0 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

them should trade with any Christian for gold, 
because the same would be their own overthrow, 
and that for the love of gold the Christians meant 
to conquer and dispossess them of all together. 

Many and the most of these I found to be true, 
but yet I resolving to make trial of all whatsoever 
happened, directed Captain George Gifford, my 
Vice-admiral, to take the Lion's Whelp, and Captain 
Calfield his barque, to turn to the eastward, against 
the breeze what they could possible, to recover the 
mouth of a river called Capuri, whose entrance I 
had before sent Captain Whiddon and John 
Douglas, the master, to discover, who found some 
nine foot water or better upon the flood, and five 
at low water, to whom I had given instructions 
that they should anchor at the edge of the shoal, 
and upon the best of the flood to thrust over, 
which shoal John Douglas buoyed and beckoned 
for them before, but they laboured in vain, for 
neither could they turn it up altogether so far to 
the east, neither did the flood continue so long, but 
the water fell ere they could have passed the sands, 
as we after found by a second experience ; so as 
now we must either give over our enterprise, or 
leaving our ships at adventure four hundred miles 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 61 

behind us, to run up in our ship's boats, one barge, 
and two wherries, but being doubtful how to carry 
victuals for so long a time in such babies, or any 
strength of men, especially for that Berreo assured 
us that his son must be by that time come down 
with many soldiers, I sent away one King, master 
of the Lion's Whelp, with his ship's boat, to try 
another branch of a river in the bottom of the bay 
of Guanipa, which was called Amana, to prove if 
there were water to be found for either of the 
small ships to enter. But when he came to the 
mouth of Amana, he found it as the rest, but 
stayed not to discover it thoroughly, because he 
was assured by an Indian, his guide, that the 
cannibals of Guanipa would assail them with many 
canoes, and that they shot poisoned arrows, so as 
if he hasted not back they should all be lost. 

In the meantime, fearing the worst, I caused all 
the carpenters we had to cut down a gal] ego boat, 
which we meant to cast off, and to fit her with 
banks to row on, and in all things to prepare her 
the best they could, so as she might be brought to 
draw but five foot, for so much we had on the bar 
of Capuri at low water. And doubting of King's 
return, I sent John Douglas again in my long 



62 THE DISCOVER r OP GVTIANA. 

barge, as well to relieve him as also to make a 
perfect search in the bottom of that bay, for it 
hath been held for infallible that whatsoever 
ship or boat shall fall therein can never disembark 
again, by reason of the violent current which 
setteth into the said bay, as also for that the 
breeze and easterly wind bloweth directly into the 
same, of which opinion I have heard John Hamp- 
ton of Plymouth, one of the greatest experience of 
England, and divers others besides that have traded 
Trinidad. 

I sent with John Douglas an old Cazique of 
Trinidad for a pilot, who told us that we could not 
return again by the bay or gulf, but that he knew 
a bye branch which ran within the land to the 
eastward, and that he thought by it we might fall 
into Capuri, and so return in four days. John 
Douglas searched those rivers, and found four 
goodly entrances, whereof the least was as big as 
the Thames at Woolwich, but in the bay thither- 
ward it was shoal and but six-foot water, so as w< 
were now without hope of any ship or barque t«> 
pass over, and therefore resolved to go on with the 
boats, and the bottom of the gallego, in which we 
thrust sixty men ; in the Lion's Whelp's boat and 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 63 

wherry we carried twenty. Captain Calfield, in his 
wherry, carried ten more, and in my barge another 
ten, which made up a hundred. We had no other 
means but to carry victuals for a month in the 
same, and also to lodge therein as we could, and to 
boil and dress our meat. Captain Gifford had with 
him Master Edward Porter, Captain Eynos, and 
eight more in his wherry, with all their victuals, 
weapons, and provisions. Captain Calfield had with 
him my cousin, Butshead Gorges, and eight more. 
In the galley, of gentlemen and officers myself 
had Captain Thyn, my cousin John Greenville, my 
nephew, John Gilbert, Captain Whiddon, Captain 
Keymis, Edward Hancock, Captain Clarke, Lieuten- 
ant Hewes, Thomas Upton, Captain Facy, Jerome 
Ferrar, Anthony Wells, William Connock, and 
about fifty more. We could not learn of Berreo 
any other way to enter but in branches, so far to the 
windward as it was impossible for us to recover, 
for we had as much sea to cross over in our 
wherries as between Dover and Calais, and in a 
great billow, the wind and current being both very 
strong, so as we were driven to go in those small 
boats directly before the wind into the bottom of 
the Bay of Guanipa, and from thence to enter tho 



64 THE DISCOVEBY OF GUIANA. 

mouth of some one of those rivers, which John 
Douglas had last discovered, and had with us for 
pilot an Indian of Barema, a river to the south of 
Orinoco, between that and the Amazons, whose 
canoes we had formerly taken as he was going 
from the said Barema, laden with cassavi bread to 
sell at Marguerita ; this Arwacan promised to 
bring me into the great river Orinoco, but indeed 
of that which we entered he was utterly ignorant, 
for he had not seen it in twelve years before, at 
which time he was very young, and of no judg- 
ment, and if God had not sent us another help, we 
might have wandered a whole year in that labyrinth 
of rivers, ere we had found any way, either out or 
in, especially after we were past the ebbing and 
flowing, which was in four days : for I know all 
the earth doth not yield the like confluence of 
streams and branches, the one crossing the other 
so many times, and all so fair and large, and so 
like one to another, as no man can tell which to 
take, and if we went by the sun or compass, hoping 
thereby to go directly one way or other, yet that 
way we were also carried in a circle amongst 
multitudes of islands, and every island so bordered 
with high trees, as no man could see any farther 



THE DISCOVERY OF OUIANA. 65 

than the breadth of the river or length of the 
breach. But this it chanced that entering into a 
river (which because it had no name we called the 
river of the Red Cross, ourselves being the first 
Christians that ever came therein), the 22nd of 
May, as we were rowing up the same, we espied 
a small canoe with three Indians, which, by the 
swiftness of my barge, rowing with eight oars, I 
overtook ere they could cross the river ; the rest of 
the people on the banks, shadowed under the thick 
wood, gazed on with a doubtful conceit what might 
befall those three which we had taken. But 
when they perceived that we offered them no 
violence, neither entered their canoe with any of 
ours, nor took out of the canoe any of theirs, they 
then began to show themselves on the bank's 
side, and offered to traffic with us for such things 
as they had, and as we drew near they all stayed, 
and we came with our barge to the mouth of a 
little creek, which carne from their town into the 
great river. 

As we abode there a while, our Indian pilot, 

called Eerdinando, would needs go ashore to their 

village to fetch some fruits, and to drink of their 

artificial wines, and also to see the place, and to 

c— 67 



66 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

know the lord of it against another time, and 
took with him a brother of his which he had with 
him in the journey ; when they came to the village 
of these people, the lord of the island offered to 
lay hands on them, purposing to have slain them 
both, yielding for reason that this Indian of ours 
had brought a strange nation into their territory to 
spoil and destroy them. But the pilot, being quick 
and of a disposed body, slipped their fingers, and 
ran into the woods, and his brother being the 
better footman of the two, recovered the creek's 
mouth, where we stayed in our barge, crying out 
that his brother was slain ; with that we set hands 
on one of them that was next us, a very old man, 
and brought him into the barge, assuring him 
that if we had not our pilot again, we would 
presently cut off his head. This old man being 
resolved that he should pay the loss of the other, 
cried out to those in the woods to save Ferdinando, 
our pilot, but they followed him notwithstanding, 
and hunted after him upon the foot with their deer 
dogs, and with so main a cry that all the woods 
echoed with the shout they made, but at last this 
poor chased Indian recovered the river side, and 
got upon a tree, and as we were coasting, leaped 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 67 

down and swam to the barge, half dead with fear. ; 
but our good hap was that we kept the other old 
Indian, which we hand fasted to redeem our pilot 
withal, for being natural of those rivers, we 
assured ourselves he knew the way better than 
any stranger could, and indeed, but for this chance 
I think we had never found the way either to 
Guiana or back to our ships : for Ferdinando, after 
a few days, knew nothing at all, nor which way to 
turn ; yea, and many times the old man himself was 
in great doubt which river to take. Those people 
which dwell in these broken islands and drowned 
lands are generally called Tiuitiuas ; there are of 
them two sorts, the one called Ciawani, and the 
other Waraweete. 

The great river of the Orinoco or Baraquan hath 
nine branches, which fall out on the north side of 
his own main mouth ; on the south side it hath 
seven other fallings into the sea, so it disem bogueth 
l»y sixteen arms in all, between islands and broken 
ground, but the islands are very great, many of 
them as big as the Isle of Wight and bigger, and 
many less ; from the first branch on the north to 
the last of the south it is at least a hundred 
leagues, so as the river's mouth is no less than 



68 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

three hundred miles wide at its entrance into the 
sea, whieh I take to be far bigger than that of the 
Amazons ; all those that inhabit in the mouth of 
this river upon the several north branches are 
these Tiuitiuas, of which there are two chief lords, 
which have continual wars one with the other. 
The islands which lie on the right hand are called 
Pallamos, and the land on the left Hororotomaka, 
and the river by which John Douglas returned 
within the land from Amana to Capuri, they call 
Macuri. 

These Tiuitiuas are a very goodly people and 
very valiant, and have the most manly speech and 
most deliberate that ever I heard, of what nation 
soever. In the summer they have houses on the 
ground, as in other places ; in the winter they 
dwell upon the trees, where they build very 
artificial towns and villages, as it is written in 
the Spanish stOry of the "West Indies, that those 
people do in the low lands near the Gulf of Uraba ; 
for between May and September the river of the 
Orinoco riseth thirty foot upright, and then are 
those islands overflown twenty foot high above the 
level of the ground, saving some few raised grounds 
in the middle of them ; and for this cause they are 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 69 

enforced to live in this manner. They never eat 
of anything that is set or sown, and as at home 
they use neither planting nor other manuring, so 
when they come abroad they refuse to feed of 
aught but of that which Nature without labour 
bringeth forth. They use the tops of palmitos for 
bread, and kill deer, fish, and pork for the rest of 
their sustenance; they have also many sorts of 
fruits that grow in the woods, and great variety of 
birds and fowl. 

And if to speak of them were not tedious and 
vulgar, surely we saw in those passages of very 
rare colours and forms, not elsewhere to be found, 
forasmuch as I have either seen or read. Of 
these people, those that dwell u;)on the branches of 
the Orinoco, called Capuri and Macureo, are for the 
most part carpenters of canoes, for they make the 
most and fairest houses, and sell them into Guiana 
for gold, and into Trinidad for tobacco, in the 
excessive taking whereof they exceed all nations ; 
and notwithstanding the moistness of the air in 
which they live, the hardness of their diet, and the 
great labours they suffer to hunt, fish, and fowl for 
their living, in all my life, either in the Indies or 
in Europe, did I never behold a more goodly or 



70 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

better favoured people, or a more manly. They 
were wont to make war upon all nations, and 
especially upon the cannibals, so as none durst with- 
out a good strength trade by those rivers ; but of 
late they are at peace with their neighbours, all 
holding the Spaniards for a common enemy. 
When their commanders die, they use great 
lamentation, and when they think the flesh of 
their bodies is putrefied and fallen from the bones, 
then they take up the carcase again, and hang it in 
the Cazique's house that died, and deck his skull 
with feathers of all colours, and hang all his gold 
plates about the bones of his arms, thighs, and 
legs. Those nations which are called Arwacas, 
which dwell on the south of the Orinoco (of which 
place and nation our Indian pilot was), are dis- 
persed in many other places, and do use to beat 
the bones of their lords into powder, and their 
wives and friends drink it all in their several sorts 
of drinks. 

After we departed from the port of these 
Ciawani we passed up the river with the flood, 
and anchored the ebb, and in this sort we went 
onward. The third day that we entered the river 
our galley came on ground, and stuck so fast as 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 71 

we thought that even there our diucovery had 
ended, and that we must have left sixty of our 
men to have inhabited like rooks upon trees with 
those nations : but the next morning, after we had 
cast out all her ballast, with tugging and hauling 
to and fro, we got her afloat, and went on. At 
four days end we fell into as goodly a river as ever 
I beheld, which was called the great Amana, which 
ran more directly without windings and turnings 
than the other. But soon after the flood of the 
sea left us, and we enforced either by main strength 
to row against a violent current, or to return aa 
wise as we went out, we had then no shift but to 
persuade the companies that it was but two or 
three days' work, and therefore desired them to 
take pains, every gentleman and others taking 
their turns to row, and to spell one the other at 
the oar's end. Every day we passed by goodly 
branches of rivers, some falling from the west, 
others from the east, into Amana, but those I leave 
to the description in the chart of discovery, where 
every one shall be named, with his rising and 
descent. When three days more were overgone, 
our companies began to despair, the weather being 
extremely hot, the river bordered with very high 



72 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

trees that kept away the air, and the current 
against us every day stronger than other. But 
we evermore commanded our pilots to promise an 
end the next day, and used it so long as we were 
driven to assure them from four reaches of the 
river to three, and so to two, and so to the next 
reach ; but so long we laboured as many days were 
spent, and so driven to draw ourselves to harder 
allowance, our bread even at the last, and no 
drink at all ; and our men and ourselves so 
wearied and scorched, and doubtful withal whether 
we should ever perform it or no, the heat in- 
creasing as we drew towards the line : for we were 
now in five degrees. 

The farther we went on (our victual decreasing 
and the air breeding great faintness) we grew 
weaker and weaker when we had most need of 
strength and ability, for hourly the river ran more 
violently than other against us, and the barge, 
wherries, and ship's boat of Captain Gifford and 
Captain Calfield had spent all their provisions, so 
as we were brought into despair and discomfort, 
had we not persuaded all the company that it was 
but only one day's work more to » attain the land, 
where we should be relieved of all we wanted, and 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 73 

if we returned that we were sure to stai ve by the 
way, and that the world would also laugh us to 
scorn. On the banks of these rivers were divers 
sorts of fruits good to eat, flowers and trees of that 
variety as were sufficient to make ten volumes of 
herbals, we relieved ourselves many times with the 
fruits of the country, and sometimes with fowl and 
fish ; we saw birds of all colours, some carnation, 
some crimson, orange tawny, purple, green, 
watched, and of all other sorts both simple and 
mixed, as it was unto us a great good passing of 
the time to behold them, besides the relief we 
found by killing some store of them with our 
fowling pieces, without which, having little or no 
bread and less drink, but only the thick and 
troubled water of the river, we had been in a very 
hard case. 

Our old pilot of the Ciawani (whom, as I said 
before, we took to redeem Ferdinando) told us, 
that if we would enter a branch of a river on the 
right hand with our barge and wherries, and leave 
the galley at anchor the while in the great river, 
he would bring us to a towu of the Arwacas 
where we should find store of bread, hens, fish, 
and of the country wine, and persuaded us that 



74 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

departing from the galley at noon, we might 
return ere night. I was very glad to hear this 
speech, and presently took my barge, with eight 
musketeers, Captain Gifford's wherry with himself 
and four musketeers, and Captain Calfield with his 
wherry and as many, and so we entered the mouth 
of this river, and because we were persuaded that 
it was so near, we took no victual with us at all. 
When we had rowed three hours we marvelled we 
saw no sign of any dwelling, and asked the pilot 
where the town was ; he told us a little farther. 
After three hours more, the sun being almost set, 
we began to suspect that he led us that way to 
betray us, for he confessed that those Spaniards 
which fled from Trinidad, and also those that 
remained with Carapana in Emeria, were joined 
together in some village upon that river. But 
when it grew towards night, and we demanding 
where the place was, he told us but four reaches 
more. When we had rowed four and four, we 
saw no sign, and our poor watermen, even heart- 
broken and tired, were ready to give up the 
ghost ; for we had now come from the galley near 
forty miles. 

At the last we determined to hang the pilot, 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 75 

and if we had well known the way back again by 
night, he had surely gone, but our own necessities 
pleaded sufficiently for his safety ; for it was as 
dark as pitch, and the river began so to narrow 
itself, and the trees to hang over from side to side, 
as we were driven with arming swords to cut a 
passage through those branches that covered the 
water. We were very desirous to find this town, 
hoping of a feast, because we made but a short 
breakfast aboard the galley in the morning, and it 
was now eight o'clock at night, and our stomachs 
began to gnaw apace ; but whether it was best to 
return or go on, we began to doubt, suspecting 
treason in the pilot more and more. But the poor 
old Indian ever assured us that it was but a little 
farther, and but this one turning, and that 
turning, and at last about one o'clock after mid- 
night we saw a light, and rowing towards it, we 
heard the dogs of the village. When we landed 
we found few people, for the lord of that place was 
gone with divers canoes above 400 miles off, upon 
a journey towards the head of the Orinoco to trade 
for gold, and to buy women of the cannibals, who 
afterwards unfortunately passed by us as we rode 
at an anchor in the port of Morequito in the dark 



76 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

of night, and yet came so near us, as his canoes 
grated against our barges. He left one of his 
company at the port of Morequito, by whom we 
understood that he had brought thirty young 
women, divers plates of gold, and had great store 
of fine pieces of cotton cloth and cotton beds. In 
his house we had good store of bread, fish, hens, 
and Indian drink, and so rested that night; and 
in the morning, after we had traded with such of 
his people as came down, we returned towards 
our galley, and brought with us some quantity of 
bread, fish, and hens. 

On both sides of this river we passed the most 
beautiful country that ever mine eyes beheld ; 
and whereas all that we had seen before was 
nothing but woods, prickles, bushes, and thorns, 
here we beheld plains of twenty miles in length, 
the grass short and green, and in divers parts 
groves of trees by themselves, as if they had been 
by all the art and labour in the world so made of 
purpose j and still as we rowed, the deer came 
down feeding by the water side, as if they had 
been used to a keeper's call. Upon this river 
there were great store of fowl, and of many sorts ; 
we saw in it divers sorts of strange fishes, and oi 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUTANA. 77 

marvellous bigness; but for lagartos it exceeded, 
for there were thousands of those ugly serpents, 
and the people call it, for the abundance of them, 
the river of lagartos in their language. I had a 
negro, a very proper young fellow, who leaping out 
of the galley to swim in the mouth of this river, 
was in all our sights taken and devoured by one 
of those lagartos. In the meanwhile our com- 
panies in the galley thought we had been all lost 
(for we promised to return before night), and sent 
the Lion's Whelps ship's boat with Captain 
Whicldon to follow us up the river ; but the next 
day after we had rowed up and down some four- 
score miles we returned, and went on our way up 
the great river ; and when we were even at the last 
cast for want of victuals, Caj)tain GifFord being 
before the galley and the rest of the boats, seeking 
out some place to land upon the banks to make 
fire, espied four canoes coming down the river, and 
with no small joy caused his men to try the utter- 
most of their strength, and after a while two of the 
four gave over, and ran themselves ashore, every 
man betaking himself to the fastness of the woods : 
the two other lesser got away, while he landed to 
lay hold of these, and so turned into some by creek, 



78 THE DISCOVERY Or GUIANA. 

we knew not whither : those canoes that were 
taken were laden with bread, and were bound for 
Marguerita in the West Indies, which those 
Indians (called Arwacas) purposed to carry thither 
for exchange. But in the lesser there were three 
Spaniards, who having heard of the defeat of their 
governor in Trinidad, and that we purposed to 
enter Guiana, came away in those canoes : one of 
them was a cavallero, as the captain of the Ar- 
wacas after told us, another a soldier, and the 
third a refiner. 

In the meantime, nothing on the earth could have 
been more welcome to us next unto gold than the 
great store of very excellent bread which we found 
in these canoes, for now our men cried, " Let us go 
on, we care not how far." After that Captain 
Gifford had brought the two canoes to the galley, 
I took my barge and went to the bank side with 
a dozen shot, where the canoes first ran themselves 
ashore, and landed there, sending out Captain Gif- 
ford and Captain Thyn on one hand, and Captain 
Calfield on the other, to follow those that were fled 
into the woods, and as I was creeping through the 
bushes, I saw an Indian basket hidden, which was 
the refiner's basket, for I found in it his quicksilver, 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 79 

saltpetre, and divers things for the trial of metals, 
and also the dust of such ore as he had refined ; 
but in those canoes which escaped there was a good 
quantity of ore and gold. I then landed more 
men, and offered <£o00 to what soldier soever could 
take one of those three Spaniards that we thought 
were landed. But our labours were in vain in that 
behalf, for they put themselves into one of the 
small canoes, and so while the greater canoes were 
in taking they escaped ; but seeking after the 
Spaniards, we found the Arwacas hidden in the 
woods which were pilots for the Spaniards, and 
rowed their canoes ; of which I kept the chiefest 
for a pilot, and carried him with me to Guiana, by 
whom I understood where and in what countries 
the Spaniards had laboured for gold, though I made 
not the same known to all, for when the springs 
began to break and the rivers to raise themselves 
so suddenly as by no means we could abide the 
digging of any mine, especially for that the richest 
are defended with rocks of hard stone, which we 
call the white spar, and that it required both 
time, men, and instruments fit for such a work, I 
thought it best not to hover thereabouts, lest if the 
same had been perceived by the company, there 



80 THE DISCOVERY OF G-TJIANA. 

would have been by this time many barks and 
ships set out, and perchance other nations would 
also have gotten of ours for pilots, so as both our- 
selves might have been prevented, and all our care 
taken for good usage of the people been utterly 
lost by those that only respect present profit, and 
such violence or insolence offered as the nations 
which are borderers would have changed their 
desire of our love and defence into hatred and 
violence. And for any longer stay to have brought 
a more quantity (which I hear hath been often 
objected), whosoever had seen or proved the fury 
of that river after it began to rise, and had been a 
month and odd days as we were from hearing 
aught from our ships, leaving them meanly manned 
above 400 miles off, would perchance have turned 
somewhat sooner than we did, if all the mountains 
had been gold or rich stones. And to say the 
truth, all the branches and small rivers which fell 
into the Orinoco were raised with such speed, as if 
we waded them over the shoes in the morning out- 
ward, we were covered to the shoulders homeward 
the very same day : and to stay to dig out gold 
with our nails had been opus laboris, but not 
ingenii; such a quantity as would have served our 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 81 

turns we could not have had, but a discovery of 
the mines to our infinite disadvantage we had 
made, and that could have been the best profit of 
further search or stay ; for those mines are not 
easily broken, nor opened in haste, and I could 
have returned a good quantity of gold ready cast, 
if I had not shot at another mark than present 
profit. 

This Arwacan pilot with the rest, feared that we 
would have eaten them, or otherwise have put 
them to some cruel death, for the Spaniards, to the 
end that none of the people in the passage towards 
Guiana or in Guiana itself might come to speech 
with us, persuaded all the nations that we were 
men eaters and cannibals ; but when the poor 
men and women had seen us, and that we gave 
them meat, and to every one something or other, 
which was rare and strange to them, they be- 
gan to conceive the deceit and purpose of the 
Spaniards, who indeed (as they confessed) took 
from them both their wives and daughters daily, 
by strength. But I protest before the majesty 
of the living God, that I neither know nor be- 
lieve that any of our company one or other, by 
violence or otherwise, ever took any of their 



82 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

'women, and yet we saw many Hundreds, and had 
many in our power, and of those very young and 
excellently favoured which came among us without 
deceit. 

Nothing got us more love among them than this 
usage, for I suffered not any man to take from any 
of the nations so much as a pine, or a potato root, 
without giving them contentment, nor any man 
so much as offer to touch any of their wives 
or daughters, which course, so contrary to the 
Spaniards (who tyrannise over them in all things), 
drew them to admire her Majesty, whose com- 
mandment I told them it was, and also wonder- 
fully to honour our nation. But I confess it was a 
very impatient work to keep the meaner sort from 
spoil and stealing, when we came to their houses, 
which because in all I could not prevent, I caused 
my Indian interpreter at every place when we de- 
parted to know of the loss or wrong done, and if 
aught were stolen or taken by violence, either the 
same was restored, and the party punished in their 
/sight, or else it was paid for to their uttermost 
demand. They also much wondered at us, after 
they heard that we had slain the Spaniards at 
Trinidad, for they were before resolved that no 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 83 

nation of Christians durst abide their presence, and 
they wondered more when I had made them know 
of the great overthrow that her Majesty's army 
and fleet had given them of late years in their own 
countries. 

After we had taken in this supply of bread, with 
divers baskets of roots, which were excellent meat, 
I gave one of the canoes to the Arwacas, which 
belonged to the Spaniards that were escaped ; and 
when I had dismissed all but the captain (who by 
the Spaniards was christened Martin), I sent back 
in the same canoe the old Ciawan, and Ferdinando, 
my first pilot, and gave them both such things as 
they desired, with sufficient victual to carry them 
back, and by them wrote a letter to the ships, 
which they promised to deliver, and performed it, 
and then I went on with my new hired pilot, 
Martin the Arwacan ; but the next or second day 
after we came aground again with our galley, and 
were like to cast her away with all our victual and 
provision, and so lay on the sand one whole night, 
and were far more in despair at this time to free 
her than before, because we had no tide of flood to 
help us, and therefore feared that all our hopes 
would have ended in mishaps ; but we fastened an 



84 THE DISCOVERY OF GTJIANA. 

anchor upon the land, and with main strength 
drew her off; and so the fifteenth day we dis- 
covered afar off the mountains of Guiana to our 
great joy, and towards the evening had a slent of 
a northerly wind that blew very strong, which 
brought us in sight of the great river of the 
Orinoco, out of which this river descended wherein 
we were ; we descried afar off three other canoes 
as far as we could discern them, after whom we 
hastened with our barge and wherries, but two of 
them passed out of sight, and the third entered up 
the great river, on the right hand to the westward, 
and there stayed out of sight, thinking that we 
meant to take the way eastward towards the pro- 
vince of Carapana, for that way the Spaniards 
keep, not daring to go upwards to Guiana, the 
people in those parts being all their enemies, and 
those in the canoes thought us to have been those 
Spaniards that were fled from Trinidad, and had 
escaped killing ; and when we came so far down as 
the opening of that branch into which they slipped, 
being near them with our barge and wherries, we 
made after them, and ere they could land, came 
within call, and by our interpreter told them what 
we were, wherewith they came back willingly 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 85 

aboard us ; and of such fish and tortugas' eggs as 
they had gathered, they gave us, and promised 
in the morning to bring the lord of that part 
with them, and to do us all other services they 
could. 

That night we came to an anchor at the parting 
of three goodly rivers ; the one was the river of 
Amana, by which we came from the north, and ran 
athwart towards the south, the other two were of 
the Orinoco, which crossed from the west and ran to 
the sea towards the east, and landed upon a fair 
sand, where we found thousands of tortugas' eggs, 
which are very wholesome meat, and greatly re- 
storing, so as our men were now well filled and 
highly contented both with the fare and nearness 
of the land of Guiana, which appeared in sight. In 
the morning there came down according to promise 
the lord of that border called Toparimaca, with 
some thirty or forty followers, and brought us 
divers sorts of fruits, and of his wine, bread, fish, 
and flesh, whom we also feasted as we could ; at 
least he drank good Spanish wine, whereof we had 
a small quantity in bottles, which above all things 
they love. I conferred with this Toparimaca of 
the next way to Guiana, who conducted our galley 



86 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

and boats to his own port, and carried us from 
thence some mile and a half to his town, where 
some of our captains caroused of his wine till they 
were reasonably pleasant, for it is very strong with 
pepper, and the juice of divers herbs, and fruits 
digested and purged ; they keep it in great earthen 
pots of ten or twelve gallons very clean and sweet, 
and are themselves at their meetings and feasts the 
greatest carousers and drunkards of the world. 
When we came to his town we found two Caziques, 
whereof one of them was a stranger that had been 
up the river in trade, and his boats, people, and 
wife encamped at the port where we anchored, and 
the other was of that country a follower of 
Toparimaca : they lay each of them in a cotton 
hamaca, which we call brasil beds, and two women 
attending them with six cups and a little ladle to 
fill them, out of an earthen pitcher of wine, and so 
they drank each of them three of those cups at a 
time, one to the other, and in this sort they drink 
drunk at their feasts and meetings. 

That Cazique that was a stranger had his wife 
staying at the port where we anchored, and in all 
my life I have seldom seen a better favoured 
woman. She was of good stature, with black eyes, 



THE DISCOVERY OP OTJIANA. 87 

fat of body, of an excellent countenance, her haii 
almost as long as herself, tied up again in pretty 
knots, and it seemed she stood not in that awe of 
her husband as the rest, for she spake and dis- 
coursed, and drank among the gentlemen and 
captains, and was very pleasant, knowing her own 
comeliness, and taking great pride therein. I 
have seen a lady in England so like her, as but for 
the difference of colour I would have sworn might 
have been the same. 

The seat of this town of Toparimaca was very 
pleasant, standing on a little hill, in an excellent 
prospect, with goodly gardens a mile compass round 
about it, and two very fair and large ponds of 
excellent fish adjoining. This town is called 
Arowacai : the people are of the nation called 
Nepoios, and are followers of Carapana. In that 
place I saw very aged people, that we might per- 
ceive all their sinews and veins without any flesh, 
and but even as a case covered only with skin. 
The lord of this place gave me an old man for 
pilot, who was of great experience and travel, and 
knew the river most perfectly both by day and 
night, and it shall be requisite for any man that 
passeth it to have such a pilot, for it is four, five, 



88 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

and six miles over in many places, and twenty 
miles in other places, with wonderful eddies and 
strong currents, many great islands and divers 
shoals, and many dangerous rocks, and' besides 
upon any increase of wind so great a billow, as we 
were sometimes in great peril of drowning in the 
galley, for the small boats durst not come from the 
shore but when it was very fair. 

The next day we hastened thence, and having 
an easterly wind to help us, we spared our arms 
from rowing; for after we entered the Orinoco, the 
river lieth for the most part east and west, even 
from the sea unto Quito in Peru. This river is 
navigable with ships little less than 1,000 miles, 
and from the place where we entered it may be 
sailed up in small pinnaces to many of the best 
parts of Nuevo reyno de Granado, and of Popayan : 
and from no place may the cities of these parts ol 
the Indies be so easily taken and invaded as from 
hence. All that day we sailed up a branch of 
that river, having on the left hand a great island, 
which they call Assapana, which may contain some 
five and twenty miles in length, and six miles in 
breadth, the great body of the river running on the 
other side of this island : beyond that middle 



THE DISCOVEEY OF GUIANA. 89 

branch there is also another island in the river, 
called Iwana, which is twice as big as the Isle of 
Wight, and beyond it, and between it and the main 
of Guiana, runneth a third branch of the Orinoco 
called Arraroopana : all three are goodly branches, 
and all navigable for great ships. I judge the 
river in this place to be at least thirty miles broad, 
reckoning the islands which divide the branches 
in it, for afterwards I sought also both the other 
branches. 

After we reached to the head of this island, 
called Assapana, a little to the westward on the 
right hand there opened a river which came from 
the north, called Europa, and fell into the great 
river ; and beyond it, on the same side, we anchored 
for that night, by another island six miles long, and 
two miles broad, which they call Ocay wita. From 
hence in the morning we landed two Guianians, 
which we found in the town of Toparimaca, that 
came with us, who went to give notice of our 
coming to the lord of that countiy called 
Putyma, a follower of Topiawari, chief lord 
of Arromaia, who succeeded Morequito, whom, 
as you have heard before, Berreo put to death, 
but his town being far within the land, he 



90 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

came not unto us that day, so as we anchored 
again that night near the banks of another island, 
of bigness much like the other, which they call 
Putapayma, on the main land, over against which 
island was a very high mountain called Oecope : 
we coveted to anchor rather by these islands in the 
river than by the main, because of the tortugas' 
eggs, which our people found on them in great 
abundance, and also because the ground served 
better for us to cast our nets for fish, the main 
banks being for the most part stony and high, and 
the rocks of a blue metalline colour, like unto the 
best steel ore, which I assuredly take it to be : of 
the same blue stone are also divers great mountains, 
which border this river in many places. 

The next morning towards nine of the clock we 
weighed anchor, and the breeze increasing, we 
sailed always west up the river, and after a while 
opening the land on the right side, the country ap- 
peared to be champaign, and the banks showed very 
perfect red. I therefore sent two of the little 
barges with Captain Gifford, and with him Captain 
Thyn, Captain Calfield, my cousin Greenvile, my 
nephew John Gilbert, Captain Eynus, Master 
Edward Porter, and my cousin Butshead Gorges, 



THE DISCOVERY OF GTJIAUA. 91 

with some few soldiers, to march over the banks of 
that red land, and to discover what manner of 
country it was on the other side, who at their 
return found it all a plain level, as far as they went 
or could discern, from the highest tree they could 
get upon : and my old pilot, a man of great travel, 
brother to the Cazique Toparimaca, told me, that 
those were called the plains of the Sayma, and that 
the same level reached to Cumana, and Carracas in 
the West Indies, which are 120 leagues to the 
north, and that there inhabited four principal 
nations. The first was the Sayma, the next Assa- 
wai, the third and greatest the Wikiri, by whom 
Pedro Hernandez de Serpa before mentioned was 
overthrown, as he passed with three hundred horse 
from Cumana towards the Orinoco, in his enterprise 
of Guiana ; the fourth are called Aroras, and are as 
black as negroes, but have smooth hair, and these 
are very valiant, or rather desperate people, and 
have the most strong poison on their arrows, and 
most dangerous of all nations, of which poison I 
will speak somewhat, being a digression not unne- 
cessary. 

There was nothing whereof I was more curious 
than to find out the true remedies of these poisoned 



92 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

arrows, for besides the mortality of the wound they 
make, the party shot endure th the most insufferable 
torment in the world, and abideth a most ugly and 
lamentable death, sometimes dying stark mad, 
sometimes their bowels breaking out of their bellies, 
and are presently discoloured, as black as pitch, 
and so unsavoury, as no man can endure to cure or 
to attend them. And it is more strange to know, 
that in all this time there was never Spaniard, 
either by gift or torment, that could attain to the 
true knowledge of the cure, although they have 
martyred and put to invented torture I know not 
how many of them. But every one of these 
Indians know it not, no, not one among thousands, 
but their soothsayers and priests, who do conceal 
it, and only teach it but from the father to the 
son. 

Those medicines which are vulgar, and serve for 
the ordinary poison, are made of the juice of a 
root called Tupara : the same also quencheth 
marvellously the heat of burning fevers, and 
healeth inward wounds, and broken veins, that 
bleed within the body. But I was more beholding 
to the Guianians than any other, for Antonio de 
Berreo told me that he could never attain to the 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 93 

knowledge thereof, and yet they taught me the 
best way of healing as well thereof, as of all other 
poisons. Some of the Spaniards have been cured 
in ordinary wounds of the common poisoned arrows 
with the juice of garlic ; but this is a general rule 
for all men that shall hereafter travel the Indies 
where poisoned arrows are used, that they must 
abstain from drink, for if they take any liquor into 
their body, as they shall be marvellously provoked 
thereunto by drought, I say, if they drink before 
the wound be dressed, or soon upon it, there is no 
way with them but present death. 

And so I will return again to our journey which 
for this third day we finished, and cast anchor 
again near the continent, on the left hand between 
two mountains, the one called Aroami, and the 
other Aio. I made no stay here but till midnight, 
for I feared hourly lest any rain should fall, and 
then it had been impossible to have gone any 
further up, notwithstanding that there is every 
day a very strong breeze and easterly wind. I 
deferred the search of the country on the Guiana 
side till my return down the river. The next day 
we sailed by a great island in the middle of the 
river, called Manoripano, and as we walked a 



94 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

while on the island, while the galley got ahead of 
us, there came after us from the main a small canoe 
with seven or eight Guianians, to invite us to 
anchor at their port, but I deferred it till my re- 
turn ; it was that Cazique to whom those Nepoios 
went, which came with us from the town of Topa- 
rimaca ; and so the fifth day we reached as high 
up as the province of Arromaia, the country of 
Morequito whom Berreo executed, and anchored to 
the west of an island called Murrecotima, ten miles 
long and five Droact ; and that night the Cazique 
Aramiari (to whose town we made our long and 
hungry voyage out of the river of Amana) passed 
by us. 

The next day we arrived at the port of 
Morequito, and anchored there, sending away one 
of our pilots to seek the king of Aromaia, uncle to 
Morequito, slain by Berreo as aforesaid. The next 
day following before noon he came to us on foot 
from his house, which was fourteen English miles 
(himself being 110 years old), and returned on foot 
the same day, and with him many of the borderers, 
with many women and children, that came to 
wonder at our nation, and to bring us down victual, 
which thev did in great plenty, as venison, pork, 



THE DISCOVEET OP GUIANA. 95 

hens, chickens, fowl, fish, with divers sorts of 
excellent fruits, and roots, and great abundance of 
pines, the princess of fruits, that grow under the 
sun, especially those of Guiana. They brought us 
also store of bread, and of their wine, and a sort 
of Paraquitos. no bigger than wrens, and of all 
other sorts both small and great ; one of them 
gave me a beast called by the Spaniards Armadillo, 
which they call Cassacam, which seemeth to be all 
barred over with small plates somewhat like to a 
rhinoceros, with a white horn growing in its hinder 
parts, as big as a great hunting horn, which they 
used to wind instead of a trumpet. Monardus 
writeth that a little of the powder of that horn 
put into the ear cureth deafness. 

After this old king had rested a while in a little 
tent that I caused to be set up, I began by my 
interpreter to discourse with him of the death 
of Morequito his predecessor, and afterwards of the 
Spaniards, and ere I went any further I made him 
know the cause of my coming thither, whose 
servant I was, and that the Queen's pleasure was, 
I should undertake the voyage for their defence, 
and to deliver them from the tyranny of the 
Spaniards, dilating at large (as I had done before 



96 THE DISCOVERT OF GTTIANA. 

to those of Trinidad) her Majesty's greatness, her 
justice, her charity to all oppressed nations, with 
as many of the rest of her beauties and virtues 
as either I could express or they conceive, all 
which being with great admiration attentively 
heard, and marvellously admired, I began to sound 
the old man as touching Guiana and the state 
thereof, what sort of commonwealth it was, how 
governed, of what strength and policy, how far it 
extended, and what nations were friends or enemies 
adjoining, and finally of the distance, and way to 
enter the same : he told me that himself and his 
people, with all those down the river towards the 
sea, as far as Emeria, the province of Carapana, 
were of Guiana, but that they called themselves 
Orinocoponi, because they bordered the great river 
of the Orinoco, and that all the nations between the 
river and those mountains in sight called Wacarima 
were of the same cast and appellation ; and that on 
the other side of those mountains of Wacarima 
there was a large plain (which after I discovered 
in my return) called the valley of Amariocapana ; 
in all that valley the people were also of the ancient 
Guianians. I asked what nations those were 
which inhabited on the further side of those 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 97 

mountains, beyond the valley of Amariocapana ; 
he answered with a great sigh (as a man which had 
inward feeling of the loss of his country and 
liberty, especially for that his eldest son was slain 
in a battle on that side of the mountains, whom he 
most entirely loved) that he remembered in his 
father's lifetime, when he was very old and him- 
self a young man, that there came down into that 
large valley of Guiana, a nation from so far off as 
the sun slept (for such were his own words), with 
so great a multitude as they could not be numbered 
nor resisted, and that they wore large coats and 
hats of crimson colour, which colour he expressed 
by showing a piece of red wood wherewith my tent 
was supported, and that they were called Oreiones, 
and Epuremei, those that had slain and rooted out 
so many of the ancient people as there were leaves 
in the wood upon all the trees, and had now made 
themselves lords of all, even to that mountain foot 
called Curaa, saving only of two nations, the one 
called Iwarawaqueri, and the other Cassipagotos, and 
that in the last battle fought between the Epuremei 
and the Iwarawaqueri, his eldest son was chosen 
to carry to the aid of the Iwarawaqueri a great 
troop of the Orinocoponi, and was there slain, with 
d— 67 



98 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

all his people and friends, and that he had now re- 
maining but one son; and farther told me that those 
Epuremei had built a great town called Macure- 
guarai, at the said mountain foot, at the beginning 
of the great plains of Guiana, which have no end : 
and that their houses have many rooms, one over 
the other, and that therein the great king of the 
Oreiones and Epuremei kept three thousand men 
to defend the borders against them, and withal 
daily to invade and slay them ; but that of late 
years, since the Christians offered to invade his 
territories and those frontiers, they were all at 
peace, and traded one with another, saving only 
the Iwarawaqueri, and those other nations upon 
the head of the river of Carol i, called Cassipagotos, 
which we afterwards discovered, each one holding 
the Spaniard for a common enemy. 

After he had answered thus far, he desired 
leave to depart, saying that he had far to go, that 
he was old and weak, and was every day called 
for by death, which was also his own phrase. I de- 
sired him to rest with us that night, but I could 
not intreat him, but he told me that at my return 
from the country above, he would again come to 
us, and in the meantime provide for us the best 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 99 

he could, of all that his country yielded ; the same 
night he returned to Orocotona, his own town, so 
as he went that day twenty-eight miles, the 
weather being very hot, the country being situate 
between four and five degrees of the Equinoctial. 
This Topiawari is held for the proudest and wisest 
of all the Orinocoponi, and so he behaved himself 
towards me in all his answers at my return, as I 
marvelled to find a man of that gravity and judg- 
ment, and of so good discourse, that had no help of 
learning nor breeding. 

The next morning we also left the port, and 
sailed westward up the river, to view the famous 
river called Caroli, as well because it was marvel- 
lous of itself, as also for that I understood it led to 
the strongest nations of all the frontiers, that were 
enemies to the Epuremei, which are subjects to 
Inga, Emperor of Guiana and Manoa ; and that 
night we anchored at another island called Caiama, 
of some five or six miles in length, and the next 
clay arrived at the mouth of Caroli. When we were 
short of it as low or further down as the port of 
Morequito we heard the great roar and fall of the 
river, but when we came to enter with our barge 
and wherries, thinking to have gone up some forty 



100 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

miles to the nations of the Cassipagotos, we were not 
able with a barge of eight oars to row one stone's 
cast in an hour, and yet the river is as broad as the 
Thames at Woolwich, and we tried both sides and 
the middle, and every part of the river, so as we 
encamped upon the banks adjoining, and sent off 
our Orinocopone (which came with us from 
Morequito) to give knowledge to the nations upon 
the river of our being there, and that we desired 
to see the lords of Canuria, which dwelt within 
the province upon that river, making them know 
that we were enemies to the Spaniards (for it 
was on this river side that Morequito slew 
the friar, and those nine Spaniards which came 
from Manoa, the city of Inga, and took from 
them 40,000 pesoes of gold), so as the next 
day there came down a lord or Cazique called 
Wanuretona with many people with him, and 
brought all store of provisions to entertain us, as 
the rest had done. And as I had before made my 
coming known to Topiawari, so did I acquaint this 
Cazique therewith, and how I was sent by her 
Majesty for the purpose aforesaid, and gathered 
also what I could of him touching the estate of 
Guiana, and I found that those also of Caroli were 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 101 

not only enemies to the Spaniards but most of all 
to the Epuremei, which abound in gold ; and by 
this Wanuretona I had knowledge that on the 
head of this river were three mighty nations, 
which were seated on a great lake, from whence 
this river descended, and were called Cassipagotos, 
Eparagotos, and Arawagotos, and that all those 
either against the Spaniards or the Epuremei would 
join with us, and that if we entered the land over 
the mountains of Curaa, we should satisfy ourselves 
with gold and all other good things. He told us 
further of a nation called Iwarawaqueri before 
spoken of, that held daily war with the Epuremei 
that inhabited Macureguarai, the first civil town of 
Guiana, of the subjects of Inga the Emperor. 

Upon this river one Captain George, that I took 
with Berreo, told me there was a great silver mine, 
and that it was near the banks of the said river. 
But by this time as well Orinoco, Caroli, as all the 
rest of the rivers were risen four or five feet in 
height, so as it was not possible by the strength 
of any men, or with any boat whatsoever, to row 
into the river against the stream. I therefore 
sent Captain Thyn, Captain Greenvile, my nephew 
John Gilbert, my cousin Butshead Gorges, Captain 



102 THE DISCOVEBY OF GUIANA. 

Clarke, and some thirty shot more, to coast the 
river by land, and to go to a town some twenty 
miles over the valley called Amnatapoi, and if 
they found guides there, to go further towards 
the mountain foot to another great town, called 
Capurepana, belonging to a Cazique called 
Haharacoa (that was a nephew to old Topiawari, 
King of Arromaia, our chief est friend), because 
this town and province of Capurepana adjoined to 
Macureguarai, which was the frontier town of the 
empire. And the meanwhile myself, with Captain 
Gifford, Captain Calfield, Edward Hancocke, and 
some half a dozen shot, marched over land to view 
the strange overfalls of the river of Caroli, which 
roared so far off, and also to see the plains ad- 
joining, and the rest of the province of Canuri. I 
sent also Captain Whiddon, W. Connocke, and 
some eight shot with them, to see if they could 
find any mineral stone along the river side. When 
we ran to the tops of the first hills of the plains 
adjoining to the river, we beheld that wonderful 
breach of waters which ran down Caroli ; and 
might from that mountain see the river how it ran 
in three parts, about twenty miles off, and there 
appeared some ten or twelve overfalls in sight, 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIAHA. 103 

every one as high over the other as a church tower, 
which fell with that fury that the rebound of 
waters made it seem as if it had been all covered 
over with a great shower of rain ; and in some 
places we took it at the first for a smoke that had 
risen over some great town. For mine own part 
I was well persuaded from thence to have re- 
turned, being a very ill footman, but the rest were 
all so desirous to go near the said strange thunder 
of waters, as they drew me on by little and little, 
till we came into the next valley, where we might 
I better discern the same. I never saw a more 

beautiful country, nor more lively prospects, hills 
so raised here and there over the valleys, the river 
winding into divers branches, the plains adjoining 
without bush or stubble, all fair green grass, the 
ground of hard sand, easy to march on either for 
horse or foot ; the deer crossing in every path ; 
the birds towards the evening singing on every 
tree, with a thousand several tunes; cranes and 
herons of white, crimson, and carnation perching 
on the river side ; the air fresh with a gentle 
easterly wind, and every stone that we stooped to 
take up promised either gold or silver by his com- 
plexion. Your lordships shall see of many sorts, 



104 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

and J hope some of th'era cannot be bettered under 
the sun, and yet we had no means but with our 
daggers and fingers to tear them out here and 
there, the rocks being most hard of that mineral 
spar aforesaid and is like a flint, and is altogether 
as hard, or harder, and besides, the veins lie a 
fathom or two deep in the rocks. But we wanted 
all things requisite save only our desires and good 
will to have performed more if it had pleased God. 
To be short, when both our companies returned, 
each of them brought also several sorts of stone 
that appeared very fair, but were such as they 
found loose on the ground, and were for the most 
part but coloured, and had not any gold fixed in 
them ; yet such as had no judgment or experience 
kept all that glistered, and would not be persuaded 
but it was rich because of the lustre, and brought 
of those, and of marquesite withal from Trinidad, 
and have delivered of those stones to be tried in 
many places, and have thereby bred an opinion 
that all the rest is of the same ; yet some of these 
stones I showed afterwards to a Spaniard of the 
Caracas who told me that it was El Madre deloro, 
and that the mine was further in the ground. But 
it shall be found a weak policy in me either to 



THE DISCOVERT OP GUIANA- 103 

betray myself or my country with imaginations, 

neither am I so far in love with that lodging, 

watching, care, peril, diseases, ill-savours, bad 

fare, and many other mischiefs that accompany 

these voyages, as to woo myself again into any of 

them, were I not assured that the sun covereth not 

so much riches in any part of the earth. Captain 

Whiddon and our chirur^eon, Nicholas Mille- 
ts 5 

( chap, brought me a kind of stones like sapphires J 

■ what they may prove I know not. I showed them 

to some of the Orinocoponi, and they promised to 
I bring me to a mountain that had of them very 

I large pieces growing diamond wise. Whether it 

be crystal of the mountain, Bristol diamond, or 
sapphire. I do not yet know, but I hope the best ; 
sure I am that the place is as likely as those from 
whence all the rich stones are brought, and in the 
same height, or very near. On the left hand of 
this river Caroli are seated those nations which 
are called Iwarawaqueri before remembered, which 
are enemies to the Epuremei ; and on the head of 
it, adjoining to the great lake Cassipa, are situate 
those other nations which also resist Inga, and the 
Epuremei, called Cassepagotos, Eparegotos, and 
Arawagotos. I further understood that this lake 



106 THE DISCOVEBY OP GUIANA. 

of Cassipa is so large, as it is above one day's 
journey for one of their canoes to cross, which 
may be some forty miles, and that therein fall 
divers rivers, and that great store of grains of 
gold are found in the summer time when the lake 
falleth by the banks in those branches. There is 
also another goodly river beyond Caroli which is 
called Arui, which also runneth through the lake 
Cassipa, and falleth into the Orinoco further west, 
making all that land between Caroli and Arui an 
island, which is likewise a most beautiful country. 
Next unto Arui there are two rivers, Atoica and 
Caora, and on that branch which is called Caora 
are a nation of people whose heads appear not 
above their shoulders, which though it may be 
thought a mere fable, yet for mine own part I am 
resolved it is true, because every child in the pro- 
vinces of Arromaia and Canuri affirm the same. 
They are called Ewaipanoma. They are reported 
to have their eyes in their shoulders, and their 
mouths in the middle of their breasts, and that a 
long train of hair groweth backward between their 
shoulders. The son of Topiawari, which I brought 
with me into England, told me that they are the 
most mighty men of all the land, and use bows, 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 107 

irrows, and clubs thrice as big as any of Guiana 
or of the Orinocoponi, and that one of the Iwara- 
waqueri took a prisoner of them the year before our 
arrival there, and brought him into the borders of 
Arromaia his father's country. And further, when 
I seemed to doubt of it, he told me that it was no 
wonder among them, but that they were as great a 
nation, and as common as any other in all the 
provinces, and had of late years slain many hun- 
dreds of his father's people, and of other nations 
their neighbours ; but it was not my chance to hear 
of them till I was come away, and if I had but 
spoken one word of it while I was there, I might 
have brought one of them with me to put the 
matter out of doubt. Such a nation was written 
of by Maundeville, whose reports were held for 
fables many years, and yet since the East Indies 
were discovered, we find his relations true of such 
things as heretofore were held incredible. Whether 
it be true or no the matter is not great, neither 
can there be any profit in the imagination ; for 
mine own part I saw them not, but I am resolved 
that so many people did not all combine or fore- 
think to make the report. 

When I came to Cumana in the West Indies 



108 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

afterwards, by chance I spake with a Spaniard 
dwelling not far from thence, a man of great 
travel, and after he knew that I had been in 
Guiana, and so far directly west as Caroli, the first 
question he asked me was whether I had seen any 
of the Ewaipanoma, which are those without heads ; 
who being esteemed a most honest man of his 
word, and in all things else, told me that he had 
seen many of them : I may not name him because 
it may be for his disadvantage, but he is well 
known to Monsieur Mucheron's son, of London, 
and to Peter Mucheron, merchant of the Flemish 
ship that was there in trade, who also heard what 
he avowed to be true of those people. The fourth 
river to the west of Caroli is Casnero, which falleth 
into the Orinoco on this side of Amapaia, and that 
river is greater than Danubius, or any of Europe : 
it riseth on the south of Guiana from the moun- 
tains which divide Guiana from Amazones, and I 
think it to be navigable many hundred miles. But 
we had no time, means, nor season of the year to 
search those rivers for the causes aforesaid, the 
winter being come upon us, although the winter 
and summer as touching cold and heat differ 
not, neither do the trees ever sensibly lose their 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 109 

leaves, but have always fruit either ripe or green, 
and most of them both blossoms, leaves, ripe fruit, 
and green at one time ; but their winter only con- 
sisteth of terrible rains and overflowings of the 
rivers, with many great storms and gusts, thunder 
and lightnings, of which we had our fill ere we 
returned. On the north side, the first river that 
falleth into the Orinoco is Cari ; beyond it on the 
same side is the river of Limo ; between these two is 
a great nation of cannibals, and their chief town 
beareth the name of the river, and is called Acama- 
cari. At this town is a continual market of women 
for three or four hatchets a piece; they are bought 
by the Arwacas, and by them sold into the West 
Indies. To the west of Limo is the river Pao, 
beyond it Caturi, beyond that Voari and Capuri, 
which falleth out of the great river of Meta, by 
which Berreo descended from Nuevo reyno de 
Granada. To the westward of Capuri is the 
province of Amapaia, where Berreo wintered, and 
had so many of his people poisoned with the tawny 
water of the marshes of the Anebas. Above 
Amapaia, toward Nuevo reyno, fall in Meta, Pato, 
and Cassanar ; to the west of these towards the 
provinces of the Ashaguas and Catetios are the 



110 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

rivers of Beta, Dawney, and Ubarro, and towards the 
frontier of Peru are the provinces of Thomebamba 
and Caximalta. Adjoining to Quito in the north of 
Peru are the rivers of Guiacar and Goauar ; and 
on the other side of the said mountains the river 
of Papamene, which descendeth into Marafion or 
Amazones, passing through the province of Muty- 
lones, where Don Pedro de Osua, who was slain by 
the traitor Agiri before rehearsed, built his brigan- 
dines, when he sought Guiana by the way of the 
Amazones. Between Dawny and Beta lieth a 
famous island in Orinoco, now called Baraquan 
(for above Meta it is not known by the name of 
Orinoco), which is called Athule, beyond which, 
ships of burden cannot pass by reason of a most 
forcible overfall and current of waters : but in the 
eddy all smaller vessels may be drawn even to 
Peru itself. But to speak of more of these rivers 
without the description were but tedious, and 
therefore I will leave the rest to the description. 
This river of Orinoco is navigable for ships 
little less than 1,000 miles, and for lesser vessels 
near 2,000. By it, as aforesaid, Peru, Nuevo 
reyno, and Popayan, may be invaded; it also 
leadeth to that great empire of Inga, and to the 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. Ill 

provinces of Amapaia and Anebas, which abound 
in gold : his branches of Cosnero, Manta, Caora 
descend from the middle land and valley, which 
lieth between the eastern province of Peru and 
Guiana ; and it falls into the sea between Mara- 
rion and Trinidad in two degrees and a half, all 
which your honours shall better perceive in the 
general description of Guiana, Peru, Nuevo reyno, 
the kingdom of Popayan, and Roidas, with the 
province of Venezuela, to the bay of Uraba behind 
Carthagena westward; and to Amazones south- 
ward. While we lay at anchor on the coast of 
Canuri, and had taken knowledge of all the nations 
upon the head and branches of this river, and had 
found out so many several people, which were 
enemies to the Epuremei and the new conquerors, 
I thought it time lost to linger any longer in that 
place, especially for that the fury of the Orinoco 
began daily to threaten us with dangers in our 
return, for no half-day passed but the river began 
to rage and overflow very fearfully, and the rains 
came down in terrible showers, and gusts in great 
abundance : and withal, our men began to cry out 
for want of shift, for no man had place to bestow 
any other apparel than that which he wore on his 



112 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

back, and that was thoroughly washed on his body 
for the most part ten times in one day : and we 
had now been well near a month, every day passing 
to the westward further and further from our ships. 
We therefore turned towards the east, and spent 
the rest of the time in discovering the river towards 
the sea, which we had not yet viewed, and which 
was most material. The next day following we 
left the mouth of Caroli, and arrived again at the 
port of Morequito where we were before (for 
passing down the stream we went without labour, 
and against the wind, little less than 100 miles 
a day). As soon as I came to anchor, I sent away 
one for old Topiawari, with whom I mmch desired 
to have further conference, and also to deal with 
him for some one of his country to bring with us 
into England, as well to learn the language as to 
confer withal by the way, the time being now 
spent of any longer stay there. Within three hours 
after my messenger came to him, he arrived also, 
and with him such a rabble of all sorts of people, 
and every one laden with something, as if it had 
been a great market or fair in England : and our 
hungry companies clustered thick and threefold 
among their baskets, every one laying hand on what 



THE DISCOVERY OF GTTIANA. 113 

he liked After he had rested awhile in my tent, 
I shut out all but ourselves and my interpreter, 
and told him that I knew that both the Epuremei 
and the Spaniards were enemies to him, his 
country, and nations : that the one had conquered 
Guiana already, and that the other sought to 
regain the same from them both. And therefore I 
desired him to instruct me what he could, both of 
the passage into the golden parts of Guiana, and 
to the civil towns and apparelled people of Inga. 
He gave me an answer to this effect : first, that he 
did not perceive that I meant to go onward to- 
wards the city of Manoa, for neither the time of 
the year served, neither could he perceive any 
sufficient numbers for such an enterprise ; and if 
I did, I was sure with all my company to be 
buried there, for that the Emperor was of that 
strength, as that many times so many men more 
were too few ; besides, he gave me this good coun- 
sel and advised me to hold it in mind, as for him- 
self he knew, he could not live till my return, that 
I should not offer by any means hereafter to invade 
the strong parts of Guiana without the help of all 
those nations which were also their enemies : for. 
that it was impossible without those, either to be 



114 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

conducted, to be victualled, or to have aught 
carried with us, our people not being able to endure 
the march in so great heat and travel, unless the 
borderers gave them help, to carry with them both 
their meat and furniture, for he remembered that 
in the plains of Macureguarai 300 Spaniards were 
overthrown, who were tired out, and had none 
of the borderers to their friends, but meeting their 
enemies as they passed the frontier, were environed 
on all sides, and the people setting the long dry 
grass on fire, smothered them so as they had no 
breath to fight, nor could discern their enemies for 
the great smoke. He told me further that four 
days' journey from his town was Macureguarai, and 
that those were the next and nearest of the subjects 
of Inga, and of the Epuremei, and the first town of 
apparelled and rich people, and that all those 
plates of gold which were scattered among the 
borderers, and carried to other nations far and 
near, came from the said Macureguarai, and were 
there made, but that those of the land within were 
far finer, and were fashioned after the image of 
men, beasts, birds, and fishes. I asked him 
whether he thought that those companies that I 
had there with me were sufficient to take that 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 115 

town or no ; he told me that he thought they were. 
I then asked him whether he would assist me with 
guides, and some companies of his people to join 
with us ; he answered that he would go himself 
with all the borderers, if the rivers did remain 
fordable, upon this condition that I would leave 
with him till my return again fifty soldiers, which 
he undertook to victual ; I answered that I had 
not above fifty good men in all there, the rest were 
labourers and rowers, and that I had no provision 
to leave with them of powder, shot, apparel, or 
aught else, and that without those things necessary 
for their defence, they should be in danger of the 
Spaniards in my absence, who I knew would use 
the same measure towards mine that I offered 
them at Trinidad ; and, although upon the motion 
Captain Calfield, Captain Grenvile, my nephew, 
John Gilbert, and divers others were desirous to 
stay, yet I was resolved that they must needs 
have perished, for Berreo expected daily a supply 
out of Spain, and looked also hourly for his son to 
come down from Nuevo reyno de Granada, with 
many horse and foot, and had also in Valentia in 
the Caracas, 200 horse ready to march, and I could 
not have spared above forty, and had not any 



116 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

store at all of powder, lead, or match to have left 
with them, nor any other provision, either spade, 
pickaxe, or aught else to have fortified withal. 
When I had given him reason that I could not at 
this time leave him such a company, he then de- 
sired me to forbear him and his country for that 
time, for he assured me that I should be no sooner 
three days from the coast, but those Epuremei 
would invade him, and destroy all the remain of his 
people and friends, if he should any way either guide 
us or assist us against them. He further alleged 
that the Spaniards sought his death, and as they 
had already murdered his nephew, Morequito, lord 
of that province, so they had him seventeen days 
in a chain before he was king of the country, and 
led him like a dog from place to place, until he 
had paid 100 plates of gold, and divers chains of 
spleen stones, for his ransom ; and now since he 
became owner of that province that they had many 
times laid wait to take him, and that they would 
be now more vehement when they should under- 
stand of his conference with the English, and be- 
cause, said he, they would the better displant me, 
if they cannot lay hands on me, they have gotten 
a nephew of mine called Eparacano, whom they 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 117 

have christened Don Juan, and his son Don Pedro, 
whom they have also apparelled and armed, by whom 
they seek to make a party against me, in mine own 
country : he also hath taken to wife one Louiana, 
of a strong family, which are my borderers and 
neighbours : and myself being now old, and in the 
hands of death, am not able to travel nor to shift, 
as when I was of younger years; he therefore prayed 
us to defer it till the next year, when he would 
undertake to draw in all the borderers to serve 
us, and then also it would be more seasonable to 
travel, for at this time of the year we should not be 
able to pass any river, the waters were and would be 
so grown ere our return. He further told me that I 
could not desire so much to invade Macureguari 
and the rest of Guiana, but that the borderers 
would be more vehement than I, for he yielded for 
a chief cause that in the wars with the Epuremei 
they were spoiled of their women, and that their 
wives and daughters were taken from them, so 
as for their own parts they desired nothing of 
the gold or treasure for their labours, but only to 
recover women from the Epuremei : for he further 
complained very sadly (as if it had been a matter 
of great consequence), that whereas they were 



118 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

wont to have ten or twelve wives, they were now 
enforced to content themselves with three or four, 
and that the lords of the Epuremei had fifty or 
one hundred. And in truth they were more for 
women than either for gold or dominion. For the 
lords of countries desire many children of their 
own bodies, to increase their races and kindreds, 
for in those consist their greatest trust and 
strength. Divers of his followers afterwards 
desired me to make haste again, that they might 
sack the Epuremei, and I asked them of what] 
They answered, of their women for us, and their 
gold for you ; for the hope of many of those women 
they more desire the war, than either for gold, or 
for the recovery of their ancient territories. For 
what between the subjects of Inga, and the 
Spaniards, those frontiers are grown thin of people, 
and also great numbers are fled to other nations 
further off for fear of the Spaniards. After I re- 
ceived this answer of the old man, we fell into con- 
sideration, whether it had been of better advice 
to have entered Macureguarai, and to have begun 
a war upon Inga at this time, yea or no, if the 
time of the year and all things else had sorted. 
For mine own part (as we were not able to march 



THE DISCOVEBY OF GUIANA. H9 

it for the rivers, neither had any such strength 
as was requisite, and durst not abide the coming of 
the winter, or to tarry any longer from our ships), 
I thought it very evil counsel to have attempted 
it at that time, although the desire of gold will 
answer many objections. But it would have been 
in my opinion an utter overthrow to the enterprise, 
if the same should be hereafter by her Majesty 
attempted: for then (whereas now they have 
heard we were enemies to the Spaniards and were 
sent by her Majesty to relieve them) they would as 
good cheap have joined with the Spaniards at our 
return, as to have yielded unto us, when they had 
proved that we came both for one errand, and that 
both sought but to sack and spoil them. But as yet 
our desire of gold, or our purpose of invasion, is not 
known unto those of the empire : and it is likely 
that if her Majesty undertake the enterprise, they 
will rather submit themselves to her obedience than 
to the Spaniards, of whose cruelty both themselves 
and the borderers have already tasted; and, there- 
fore, till I had known her Majesty's pleasure, I 
would rather have lost the sack of one or two 
towns, although they might have been very profit- 
able, than to have defaced or endangered the 



120 THE DISCOVERT OP GUIANA. 

future hope of so many millions, and the great 
good and rich trade which England may be 
possessed of thereby. T am assured now that they 
will all die even to the last man against the 
Spaniards, in hope of our succour and return : 
whereas otherwise if I had either laid hands on the 
borderers, or ransomed the lords as Berreo did, or 
invaded the subjects of Inga, I know all had been 
lost for hereafter. After that I had resolved 
Topiawari, lord of Aromaia, that I could not at 
this time leave with him the companies he desired, 
and that I was contented to forbear the enterprise 
against the Epuremei till the next year, he freely 
gave me his only son to take with me into England, 
and hoped, that though he himself had but a short 
time to live, yet that by our means his son should 
be established after his death : and I left with him 
one Francis Sparrow, a servant of Captain Gifford, 
who was desirous to tarry, and could describe a 
country with his pen, and a boy of mine called 
Hugh Goodwin, to learn the language. I after 
asked the manner how the Epuremei wrought those 
plates of gold, and how they could melt it out of 
the stone ; he told me that the most of the gold 
which they made in plates and images was not 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 121 

severed from the stone, but that on the lake of 
Manoa, and in a multitude of other rivers, they 
gathered it in grains of perfect gold, and in pieces 
as big as small stones, and that they put to it a 
part of copper, otherwise they could not work it, 
and that they used a great earthen pot with holes 
round about it, and when they had mingled the gold 
and copper together, they fastened canes to the 
holes, and so with the breath of men they increased 
the fire till the metal ran, and then they cast it 
into moulds of stone and clay, and so make those 
plates and images. I have sent your honours of 
two sorts such as I could by chance recover, more 
to show the manner of them than for the value : 
for I did not in any sort make my desire for gold 
known, because I had neither time nor power to 
have a greater quantity. I gave among them many 
more pieces of gold than I received of the new 
money of twenty shillings with her Majesty's pic- 
ture to wear, with promise that they would become 
her servants thenceforth. 

I have also sent your honours of the ore, 
whereof I know some is as rich as the earth 
vieldeth any, of which I know there is sufficient, 
if nothing else were to be hoped for. But besides 



122 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

that we were not able to tarry and search the hills, 
so we had neither pioneers, bars, sledges, nor 
wedges of iron, to break the ground, without 
which there is no working in mines : but we saw 
all the hills with stones of the colour of gold and 
silver, and we tried them to be no marquesite, 
and therefore such as the Spaniards call El Madre 
del oro, which is an undoubted assurance of the 
general abundance ; and myself saw the outside of 
many mines of the white spar, which I know to be 
the same that all covet in this world, and of those 
more then I will speak of. 

Having learned what I could in Canuri and 
Aromaia, and received a faithful promise of the 
principalest of those provinces to become ser- 
vants to her Majesty, and to resist the Spaniards, 
if they made any attempt in our absence, and that 
they would draw in the nations about the lake of 
Cassipa, and those Iwarawaqueri, I then parted 
from old Topiawari, and received his son for a 
pledge between us, and left with him two of ours 
as aforesaid. To Francis Sparrow I gave instruc- 
tions to travel to Macureguarai, with such mer- 
chandises as I left with him, thereby to learn the 
place, and if it were possible to go on to the 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 12$ 

great city of Manoa: which being done, we 
weighed anchor, and coasted the river on Guiana 
side, because we came up on the north side, by tho 
lanes of the Saima and Wikiri. 

There came with us from Aromaia a Cazique 
called Putijma, that commanded the province of 
Warapana (which Putijma slew the nine Spaniards 
upon Caroli before spoken of), who desired us to 
rest at the port of his country, promising to bring 
us to a mountain adjoining to his town that had 
stones of the colour of gold, which he performed. 
And after we had rested there one night, I went 
myself in the morning, with most of the gentlemen 
of my company, overland towards the said moun- 
tain, marching by a river side called Mana, leav- 
ing on the right hand a town called Tuteritona, 
standing in the province of Tarracoa, of which 
Wariaaremagoto is principal. Beyond it lieth 
another town towards the south, in the valley of 
Amariocapana, which beareth the name of the 
said valley, whose plains stretch themselves some 
sixty miles in length, east and west, as fair ground, 
and as beautiful fields, as any man hath ever seen, 
with divers copses scattered here and there by 
the river side, and all as full of deer as any 



124 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

forest or park in England, and in every lake and 
river the like abundance of fish and fowl, of which 
Irraparragota is lord. 

From the river of Mana we crossed another 
river in the said beautiful valley called Oiana, 
and rested ourselves by a clear lake, which lay in 
the middle of the said Oiana, and one of our 
guides kindling us a fire with two sticks, we 
stayed awhile to dry our shirts, which with the 
heat hung very wet and heavy on our shoulders. 
Afterwards we sought the . ,id to pass over to- 
wards the mountain called Iconuri, where Putijma 
foretold us of the mine. In this lake we saw one 
of the great fishes, as big as a wine pipe, which 
they call Manati, and is most excellent and whole- 
some meat. But after I perceived that to pass 
the said river would require half a day's march 
more, I was not able myself to endure it, and 
therefore I sent Captain Key mis with six shot to 
go on, and gave him order not to return to the 
port of Putijma, which is called Chiparepare, but 
to take leisure, and to march down the said valley, 
as far as a river called Cumaca, where I promised 
to meet him again (Putijma himself promising 
also to be his guide). And as they marched, they 



THE DISCOVERY OP GTJIANA. 125 

loft the towns of Emparepana and Capurepana on 
the right hand, and marched from Putijma's house 
down the said valley of Amariocapana, and we re- 
turning the same day to the river side, saw by 
the way many rocks, like unto gold ore, and on 
the left hand a round mountain which consisted of 
mineral stone. 

From hence we rowed down the stream, coasting 
the province of Parino; as for the branches of 
rivers which I overpass in discourse, those shall 
be better expressed in the description with the 
mountains of Aio, Ara, and the rest, which are 
situate in the provinces of Parino and Carricurrina. 
When we were come as far down as the land 
called Arriacoa (where Orinoco divideth itself 
into three great branches, each of them being most 
goodly rivers), I sent away Captain Henry Thyn 
and Captain Greenvile with the galley the nearest 
way, and took with me Captain Gifford, Captain 
Calfield, Edward Porter, and Captain Eynos with 
mine own barge, and the two wherries, and went 
down that branch of the Orinoco which is called 
Cararoopana, which leadeth towards Emeria, the 
province of Carapana, and towards the east sea, as 
well to find out Captain Keymis, whom I had sent 



126 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

overland, as also to acquaint myself with Carapana, 
who is one of the greatest of all the lords of the 
Orinocoponi ; and when we came to the river of 
Cumaca (to which Putijma promised to conduct 
Captain Keynris) I left Captain Eynos and Master 
Porter in the said river to expect his coming, and 
the rest of us rowed down the stream towards 
Emeria. 

In this branch called Cararoopana were also 
many goodly islands, some of six miles long, some 
of ten, and some of twenty; when it grew towards 
sunset, we entered a branch of a river that fell 
into the Orinoco called Winicapora, where I was 
informed of the mountain of crystal, to which in 
truth, for the length of the way, and the evil 
season of the year, I was not able to march, nor 
abide any longer upon the journey : we saw it 
afar off, and it appeared like a white church tower 
of an exceeding height. There falleth over it a 
mighty river which touch eth no part of the side of 
the mountain, but rusheth over the top of it and 
falleth to the ground with a terrible noise and 
clamour, as if 1,000 great bells were knocked 
one against another. I think there is not in the 
world so strange an overfall, nor so wonderful to 



THE DISCOVERT OP GUIANA. 12? 

behold. Berreo told me that it hath diamonds 
and other precious stones on it, and that they 
shined very far off ; but what it hath I know not, 
neither durst he or any of his men ascend to the 
top of the said mountain, those people adjoining 
being his enemies (as they were), and the way to it 
so impassible. 

Upon this river of Winicapora we rested a 
while, and from thence marched into the country 
to a town called after the name of the river, 
whereof the chief was one Timitwara, who also 
offered to conduct me to the top of the said moun- 
tain called Wacarima : but when we came in first 
to the house of the said Timitwara, being upon 
one of their feast days, we found them all as 
drunk as beggars, and the pots walking from one 
to another without rest. We that were weary, and 
hot with marching, were glad of the plenty, 
though a small quantity satisfied us, their drink 
being very strong and heady, and so rested our- 
selves awhile. After we had fed, we drew ourselves 
back to our boats, upon the river, and there came 
to us all the lords of the country, with all such 
kind of victual as the place yielded, and with 
their delicate wine of pines, and with abundance 



128 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

of hens, and other provisions, and of those stones 
which we call spleen-stones. We understood by 
these chieftains of Winicapora, that their lord, 
Carapana, was departed from Emeria which was 
now in sight, and that he was fled to Cairamo, 
adjoining to the mountains of Guiana, over the 
valley called Amariocapana, being persuaded by 
those ten Spaniards which lay at his house that 
we would destroy him and his country. 

But after these Caziqui of Winicapora and 
Saporatona his followers perceived our purpose, 
and saw that we came as enemies to the Spaniards 
only, and had not so much as harmed any of those 
nations ; no, though we found them to be of the 
Spaniard's own servants, they assured us that 
Carapana would be as ready to serve us as any 
of the lords of the provinces which we had passed; 
and that he durst do no other till this day but 
entertain the Spaniards, his country lying so 
directly in their way, and next of all other to 
any entrance that should be made in Guiana on 
that side. 

And they further assured us that it was not 
for fear of our coming that he was removed, but 
to be acquitted of those Spaniards or any other 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 129 

that should come hereafter. For the province of 
Cairoma is situate at the mountain foot, which 
divideth the plains of Guiana from the countries 
of the Orinocoponi : by means whereof if any 
should come in our absence into his towns, he 
would slip over the mountains into the plains of 
Guiana among the Epuremei, where the Spaniards 
durst not follow him without great force. 

But in my opinion, or rather I assure myself, 
that Carapana (being a notable wise and subtle 
fellow, a man of one hundred years of age, and 
therefore of great experience) is removed to look 
on, and if he find that we return strong, he will be 
ours ; if not, he will excuse his departure to the 
Spaniard^ and say it was for fear of our coming. 

We therefore thought it bootless to row so far 
down the stream, or to seek any further for this 
old fox ; and therefore from the river of Warica- 
pana (which lieth at the entrance of Emeria) we 
turned again, and left to the eastward those four 
rivers which fall from out the mountains of 
Emeria and the Orinoco, which are Waracapari, 
Coirama, Akaniri, and Iparoma: below those four 
are also these branches and mouths of the Orinoco, 
which fall into the Est Sea, whereof the first is 
e— 67 



130 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

Araturi, the next Amacura, the third Barima, the 
fourth Wana, the fifth Morooca, the sixth Paroma, 
the last Wijmi : beyond them there fall out of 
the land between the Orinoco and Amazons four- 
teen rivers which I forbear to name, inhabited by 
the Arwacas and cannibals. 

It is now time to return towards the north, and 
we found it a wearisome way back, from the bor- 
ders of Emeria, to recover up again to the head of 
the river Carerupana, by which we descended, and 
where we parted from the galley, which I directed 
to take the next way to the port of Toparimaca, 
by which we entered first. 

All the night it was stormy and dark, and full 
of thunder and great showers, so as we were 
driven to keep close by the banks in our small 
boats, being all heartily afraid both of the billows 
and terrible current of the river. By the next 
morning we recovered the mouth of the river of 
Cumaca, where we left Captain Eynos and 
Edward Porter to attend the coming of Captain 
Keymis over-land ; but when we entered the same, 
they had heard no news of his arrival, which bred 
In us a great doubt what might be become of him. 
1 rowed up a league or two further into the river, 



THE DISCOVERT OF GUIANA. 13] 

shooting off pieces all the way, that he might know 
of our being there, and the next morning we heard 
them answer us also with a piece. We took them 
aboard us, and took our leave of Putijma, their 
guide, who of all others most lamented our depar- 
ture, and offered to send his son with us into 
England if we could have stayed till he had sent 
back to his town. But our hearts were cold to 
behold the great rage and increase of the Orinoco, 
and therefore departed and turned towards the 
west till we had recovered the parting of the three 
branches aforesaid, that we might put down the 
stream after the galley. 

The next day we landed on the island of Assa- 
pana (which divideth the river from that branch 
by which we went down to Emeria), and there 
feasted ourselves with that beast which is called 
Armadillo, presented unto us before at Winicapora, 
and the clay following we recovered the galley at 
anchor at the port of Toparimaca, and the same 
evening departed with very foul weather, and 
terrible thunder and showers, for the winter was 
come on very far. The best was, we went no less 
than one hundred miles a day down the river, but 
by the way we entered it was impossible to return, 



132 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

for that the river of Amana, being in the bottom 
of the bay of Guanipa, cannot be sailed back by 
any means, both the breeze and current of the sea 
were so forcible, and therefore we followed a 
branch of the Orinoco called Capuri, which entered 
into the sea eastward of our ships, to the end we 
might bear with them before the wind ; and it was 
not without need, for we had by that way as much 
to cross of the main sea after we came to the river's 
mouth as between Gravelines and Dover, in such 
boats as your honours have heard. 

To speak of what passed homeward were tedious, 
either to describe or name any of the rivers, 
islands, or villages of the Tiuitiuas which dwell on 
trees ; we will leave all those to the general map. 
And to be short, when we were arrived at the sea 
side, then grew our greatest doubt and the bitterest 
of all our journey torepassed, for I protest before 
God that we were in a most desperate estate, for 
the same night which we anchored in the mouth 
of the river of Capuri, where it falleth into the 
sea, there arose a mighty storm, and the river's 
month was at least a league broad, so as we ran 
before night close under the land with our small 
boats, and brought the galley as near as we could ; 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 133 

but she had as much a do to live as could be, and 
there wanted little of her sinking and all those in 
her. For mine own part I confess, I was very- 
doubtful which way to take, either to go over in 
the pestered galley, there being but six foot of 
water over the sands for two leagues together, and 
that also in the channel, and she drew five, or to 
adventure in so great a billow, and in so doubtful 
weather, to cross the seas in my barge. The 
longer we tarried the worse it was, and therefore I 
took Captain Gifford, Captain Calfield, and my 
cousin Greenvile into my barge, and after it 
cleared up, about midnight we put ourselves to 
God's keeping and thrust out into the sea, leaving 
the galley at anchor, who durst not adventure but 
by daylight. And so being all very sober and 
melancholy, one faintly cheering another to show 
courage, it pleased God that the next day, about 
nine of the clock, we descried the Island of Trini- 
dad, and steering for the nearest part of it, we 
kept the shore till we came to Curiapan, where we 
found our ships at anchor, than which there was 
never to us a more joyful sight. 

Now that it hath pleased God to send us safe to 
our ships, it is time to leave Guiana to the sun 



134 THE DISCOVERY OF GT7IANA. 

whom they worship, and steer away towards the 
north. I will, therefore, in a few words, finish 
the discovery thereof. Of the several nations 
which we found upon this discovery, I will once 
again make repetition, and how they are affected. 
At our first entrance into Amana, which is one of 
the outlets of the Orinoco, we left on the right 
hand of us in the bottom of the bay, lying directly 
against Trinidad, a nation of inhuman cannibals, 
which inhabit the rivers of Guanipa and Berreese ; 
in the same bay there is also a third river which is 
called Areo, which riseth on Paria side towards 
Cumana, and that river is inhabited with the 
Wikiri, whose chief town upon the said river is 
Sayma. In this bay there are no more rivers but 
these three before rehearsed, and the four branches 
of Amana, all which in the winter thrust so great 
abundance of water into the sea, as the same is 
taken up fresh two or three leagues from the land. 
In the passages towards Guiana (that is, in all 
those lands which the eight branches of the Orinoco 
fashion into islands), there are but one sort of 
people called Tiuitiuas, but of two casts as they 
term them, the one called Ciawary, the other 
Waraweeti. and those war one with the other. 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 135 

On the hitherniost part of the Orinoco, as at 
Toparimaca and Winicapora, those are of a nation 
called Nepoios, and are of the followers of Cara- 
pana, Lord of Emeria. Between Winicapora and 
the port of Morequito, which standeth in Aromaia, 
and all those in the valley of Amariocapana are 
called Orinocoponi, and did obey Morequito, and 
are now followers of Topiawari. Upon the river 
of Caroli are the Canuri, which are governed by a 
woman (who is inheritrix of that province), who 
came far off to see our nation, and asked me divers 
questions of, her Majesty, being much delighted 
with the discourse of her Majesty's greatness, 
and wondering at such reports as we truly made of 
her highness's many virtues. And upon the head 
of Caroli, and on the lake of Cassipa, are the three 
strong nations of the Cassipagotos. Eight south 
into the land are the Capurepani and Emparepani, 
and beyond those adjoining to Macureguarai (the 
first city of Inga) are the Iwarawakeri. All these 
are professed enemies to the Spaniards, and to the 
rich Epuremei also. To the west of Caroli are 
divers nations of cannibals, and of those Evvaipa- 
noma without heads. Directly west are the 
Amapaias and Anebas, which are also marvellous 



136 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIAWA. 

rich in gold. The rest towards Peru we will omit 
On the north of the Orinoco, between it and the 
West Indies, are the Wikiri, Saymi, and the rest 
before spoken of, all mortal enemies to the 
Spaniards. On the south side of the main mouth 
of the Orinoco are the Arwacas ; and beyond them 
the cannibals; and to the south of them the 
Amazons. 

To make mention of the several beasts, birds, 
fishes, fruits, flowers, gums, sweet woods, and of 
their several religions and customs, would for the 
first require as many volumes as those of Gesnerus, 
and for the rest another bundle of Decades. The 
religion of the Epuremei is the same which the 
Ingas, Emperors of Peru used, which may be read 
in Cieca, and other Spanish stories, how they 
believe the immortality of the soul, worship the 
sun, and bury with them alive their best beloved 
wives and treasure, as they likewise do in Pegu in 
the East Indies, and other places. The Orinoco- 
poni bury not their wives with them, but their 
jewels, hoping to enjoy them again. The Arwacas 
dry the bones ©f their lords, and their wives and 
friends drink them in powder. In the graves of 
the Peruvians the Spaniards found their greatest 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 137 

abundance of treasure. The like also is to be 
found among these people in every province. 
They have all many wives, and the lords five- fold 
fco the common sort. Their wives never eat with 
their husbands, nor among the men, but serve their 
husbands at meals, and afterwards feed by them- 
selves. Those that are past their younger years, 
make all their bread and drink and work their 
cotton beds, and do all else of service and labour, 
for the men do nothing but hunt, fish, play, and 
drink, when they are out of the wars. 

I will enter no further into discourse of their 
manners, laws, and customs ; and because I have 
not myself seen the cities of Inga, I cannot avow 
on my credit what I have heard, although it be 
very likely that the Emperor Inga hath built and 
erected as magnificent palaces in Guiana as his 
ancestors did in Peru, which were for their riches 
and rareness most marvellous and exceeding all in 
Europe, and I think of the world, China excepted, 
which also the Spaniards (which I had) assured me 
to be of truth, as also the nations of the borderers, 
who being but Saluaios, to those of the inland do 
cause much treasure to be buried with them, for I 
was informed of one of the Caziqui of the valley 



138 THE DISCOVERT OF GUIANA. 

of Amariocapana which had buried with him, a 
little before our arrival, a chair of gold most 
curiously wrought, which was made either in Ma- 
cureguarai adjoining, or in Manoa. But if we 
should have grieved them in their religion at the 
first, before they had been taught better, and have 
digged up their graves, we had lost them all • and 
therefore I held my first resolution, that her 
Majesty should either accept or refuse the enter- 
prise ere anything should be done that might 
in any sort hinder the same. And if Peru had 
so many heaps of gold, whereof those Ingas 
were princes, and that they delighteth so much 
therein, no doubt but this which now liveth and 
reigneth in Manoa hath the same humour, and 
I am assured hath more abundance of gojd 
within his territory than all Peru and the West 
Indies. 

For the rest, which myself have seen, I will 
promise these things that follow and know to be 
true. Those that are desirous to discover and to 
see many nations, may be satisfied within this 
river, which bringeth forth so many arms and 
branches leading to several countries and provinces, 
above 2,000 miles east and west, and 800 miles south 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 139 

and north; and of these, the most either rich in 
gold or in other merchandises. The common soldier 
shall here fight for gold, and pay himself instead of 
pence with plates of half a foot broad, whereas he 
breaketh his bones in other wars for provant and 
penury. Those commanders and chieftains, that 
shoot at honour and abundance, shall find there 
more rich and beautiful cities, more temples 
adorned with golden images, more sepulchres filled 
with treasure, than either Cortez found in Mexico, 
or Pizzaro in Peru ; and the shining glory of this 
conquest will eclipse all those so far extended 
beams of the Spanish nation. There is no country 
which yieldeth more pleasure to the inhabitants, 
either for these common delights of hunting, 
hawking, fishing, fowling, and the rest, than 
Guiana doth. It hath so many plains, clear rivers, 
abundance of pheasants, partridges, quails, rails, 
cranes, herons, and all other fowl : deer of all 
sorts, porks, hares, lions, tigers, leopards, and 
divers other sorts of beasts, either for chase 
or food. It hath a kind of beast called Cama, 
or Anta, as big as an English beef, and in great 
plenty. 

To speak of the several sorts of every kind I fear 



140 THE DISCOVERY OP GTJIANA. 

would be troublesome to the reader, and therefore 1 
will omit them, and conclude that both for health, 
good air, pleasure and riches, I am resolved it can- 
not be equalled by any region either in the east or 
west. Moreover the country is so healthful, as 
100 persons and more, which lay (without shift 
most sluttishly, and were every day almost melted 
with heat in rowing and marching, and suddenly 
wet again with great showers, and did eat of all 
sorts of corrupt fruits, and made meals of fresh 
fish without seasoning, of tortugas, of lagartos, 
and of all sorts good and bad, without either order 
or measure, and besides lodged in the open air 
every night) we lost not any one, nor had one ill 
disposed to my knowledge, nor found any cal- 
lentura, or other of those pestilent diseases which 
dwell in all hot regions, and so near the equinoc- 
tial line. 

Where there is store of gold, it is in effect 
needless to remember other commodities for trade : 
but it hath, towards the south part of the river, 
great quantities of Brazil wood, and of divers 
berries, that dye a most perfect crimson and 
carnation. And for painting, all France, Italy, or 
the east Indies yield none such ; for the more the 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. J 41 

skin is washed the fairer the colour appeareth, 
amd with which, even those brown and tawny- 
women spot themselves and colour their cheeks. 
All places yield abundance of cotton, of silk, of 
balsamum, and of those kinds most excellent, and 
never known in Europe ; of all sorts of gums, of 
Indian pepper : and what else the countries may 
afford within the land we know not, neither had 
we time to abide the trial and search. The 
soil besides is so excellent, and so full of 
rivers, as it will carry sugar, ginger, and all 
those other commodities which the West Indies 
hath. 

The navigation is short, for it may be sailed 
with an ordinary wind in six weeks, and in the 
like time back again, and by the way neither lee 
shore, enemy's coast, rocks, nor sands, all which in 
the voyages to the West Indies, and all other 
places, we are subject unto : as the channel of 
Bahama, coming from the West Indies, cannot be 
passed in the winter, and when it is at the best, it 
is a perilous and a fearful place ; the rest of the 
Indies for calms, and diseases very troublesome ; and 
the Bermudas a hellish sea for thunder, lightning 
and storms. 



142 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

This very year there were seventeen sail of 
Spanish ships lost in the channel of Bahama, and 
the great Philip like to have sunk at the Ber- 
mudas, was put back to Saint Juan de Puerto Rico. 
And so it falleth out in that navigation every 
year for the most part, which in this voyage are 
not to be feared ; for the time of the year to leave 
England is best in July, and the summer in Guiana 
is in October, November, December, January, 
February, and March, and then the ships may 
depart thence in April, and so return again into 
England in June, so as they shall never be subject 
to winter weather, either coming, going, or staying 
there, which, for my part, I take to be one of the 
greatest comforts and encouragements that can be 
thought on, having (as I have done) tasted in this 
voyage by the West Indies so many calms, so 
much heat, such outrageous gusts, foul weather, 
and contrary winds. 

To conclude, Guiana is a country that hath yet 
her maidenhead, never sacked, turned, nor wrought, 
the face of the earth hath not been torn, nor the 
virtue and salt of the soil spent by manuring, the 
graves have not been opened for gold, the mines 
not broken with sledges, nor their images pulled 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 143 

down out of their temples. It hath never been 
entered by any army of strength, and never con- 
quered or possessed by any Christian prince. It is 
besides so defensible, that if two forts be built in 
one of the provinces which I have seen, the flood 
setteth in so near the bank, where the channel also 
lieth, that no ship can pass up but within a pike's 
length of the artillery, first of the one, and after- 
wards of the other ; which two forts will be a 
sufficient guard both to the Empire of Inga, and 
to a hundred other several kingdoms lying with- 
in the said river, even to the city of Quito in 
Peru. 

There is therefore great difference between the 
easiness of the conquest of Guiana, and the defence 
of it being conquered, and the West or East Indies : 
Guiana hath but one entrance by the sea (if it 
have that) for any vessels of burden, so as whoso- 
ever shall first possess it it shall be found in- 
accessible for any enemy, except he come in 
wherries, barges, or canoes, or else in flat-bottomed 
boats ; and if he do offer to enter it in that manner, 
the woods are so thick 200 miles together upon the 
rivers of such entrance, as a mouse cannot sit in a 
boat unhit from the bank. By land it is more 



144 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIAKA. 

impossible to approach, for it hath the strongest 
situation of any region under the sun, and is so 
environed with impassable mountains on every 
side, as it is impossible to victual any company in 
the passage, which hath been well proved by the 
Spanish nation, who since the conquest of Peru 
have never left five years free from attempting 
this Empire, or discovering some way into it, and 
yet of twenty-three several gentlemen, knights, 
and noblemen, there was never any that knew 
which way to lead an army by land, or to conduct 
ships by sea, anything near the said country. 
Oreliano, of which the river of Amazons taketh 
name, was the first, and Don Antonio de Berreo 
(whom we displanted) the last ; and I doubt much 
whether he himself or any of his yet know the 
best way into the said Empire. It can therefore 
hardly be regained, if any strength be formerly set 
down, but in one or two places, and but two or 
three crumsters or galleys built, and furnished 
upon the river within : the West Indies hath many 
ports, watering places, and landings, and nearer 
than 300 miles to Guiana no man can harbour a 
ship except he know one only place, which is not 
learned in haste, and which I will undertake there 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 145 

is not any one of my companions that knoweth, 
whosoever hearkened most after it. 

Besides by keeping one good fort, or building 
one town of strength, the whole empire is guarded, 
and whatsoever companies shall be afterwards 
planted within the land, although in twenty sevewd 
provinces, those shall be able all to reunite them- 
selves upon any occasion either by the way of one 
river, or be able to march by land without either 
wood, bog, or mountain ; whereas in the West 
Indies there are few towns or provinces that can 
succour or relieve one the other, either by land 
or sea. By land the countries are either desert, 
mountainous, or strong enemies. By sea, if any 
man invade to the eastward, those to the west can- 
not in many months turn against the breeze and 
east wind ; besides, the Spaniards are therein so 
dispersed, as they are nowhere strong, but in 
Nueva Hispania only ; the sharp mountains, the 
thorns and poisoned prickles, the sandy and deep 
ways in the valleys, the smothering heat and air, 
and want of water in other places, are their only 
and best defence, which (because those nations 
that invade them are not victualled or provided to 
stay, neither have any place to friend adjoining) 



146 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

do serve them instead of good arms and great 
multitudes. 

The West Indies were first offered her Majesty's 
grandfather by Columbus, a stranger in whom 
there might be doubt of deceit, and besides it was 
then thought incredible that there were such and 
so many lands and regions never written of before. 
This Empire is made known to her Majesty by her 
own vassal, and by him that oweth to her more 
duty than an ordinary subject, so that it shall ill 
sort with the many graces and benefits which I 
have received to abuse her highness, either with 
fables or imaginations. The country is already 
discovered, many nations won to her Majesty's 
love and obedience, and those Spaniards which 
have latest and longest laboured about the con- 
quest, beaten out, discouraged, and disgraced, which 
among these nations were thought invincible. 
Her Majesty may in this enterprise employ all 
those soldiers and gentlemen that are younger 
brethren, and all captains and chieftains that want 
employment, and the charge will be only the first 
setting out in victualling and arming them ; for 
after the first or second year I doubt not but to 
see in London a Contratation house of more receipt 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 147 

for Guiana than there is now in Civil [Seville] foi 
the West Indies. 

And I am resolved that if there were but a 
small army a-foot in Guiana, marching towards 
Manoa the chief city of Inga, he would yield her 
Majesty by composition so many hundred thousand 
pounds yearly as should both defend all enemies 
abroad and defray all expenses at home, and that 
he would besides pay a garrison of 3,000 or 4,000 
soldiers very royally to defend him against other 
nations ; for he cannot but know how his prede- 
cessors, yea, how his own great-uncles Guascar and 
Atibalipa, sons to Guanacapa, Emperor of Peru, 
were (while they contended for the Empire) beaten 
out by the Spaniards, and that both of late years, 
and ever since the said conquest, the Spaniards 
have sought the passages and entry of his country ; 
and of their cruelties used to the borderers he can- 
not be ignorant. In which respects no doubt but 
he will be brought to tribute with great gladness ; 
if not, he hath neither shot nor iron weapon in 
all his empire, and therefore may easily be con- 
quered. 

And I farther remember that Berreo confessed 
to me and others (which I protest before the 



148 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

Majesty of God to be true) that there was found 
among prophecies in Peru (at such time as the 
empire was reduced to the Spanish obedience), in 
their chiefest temples, amongst divers others which 
foreshowed the loss of the said emyire, that from 
Inglatierra those Ingas should be again in time to 
come restored, and delivered from the servitude of 
the said conquerors. And I hope, as we with 
these few hands have displanted the first garrison, 
and driven them out of the said country, so her 
Majesty will give order for the rest, and either 
defend it, and hold it as tributary, or conquer 
and keep it as empress of the same. For whatso- 
ever prince shall possess it shall be greatest, and 
if the king of Spain enjoy it, he will become irre- 
sistible. Her Majesty hereby shall confirm and 
strengthen the opinions of all nations, as touching 
her great and princely actions. And where the 
south border of Guiana reacheth to the dominion 
and empire of the Amazons, those women shall 
hereby hear the name of a virgin which is not 
only able to defend her own territories and her 
neighbours', but also to invade and conquer so 
great empires and so far removed. 

To speak more at this time I fear would be but 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 149 

troublesome ; I trust in God, this being true, will 
suffice, and that he which is King of all kings and 
Lord of lords will put it into her heart which is 
Lady of ladies to possess it ; if not, I will judge 
those men worthy to be kings thereof that by her 
grace and leave will undertake it of themselves. 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH'S JOURNAL OF 
HIS SECOND VOYAGE TO GUIANA. 



The 19th of August, 1617, at 6 o'clock in the 
morning, having the wind at N.E. we set sail in 
the river of Cork, where we had attended a fair 
wind 7 weeks. 

From 6 in the morning till 10 at night we ran 
14 leagues S. by W. ; from 10 at night till 10 in 
the morning we had no wind, so as between 10 in 
the morning and 4 at afternoon we made not 
above 2 leagues. 

At 4 the 20th day the wind began to freshen, and 
we steered away S.S.W., keeping a westerly course, 
fearing the westerly winds, and from 4 to 2 
o'clock after midnight, being the morning of the 
21st day, we ran 13 leagues. 

From 2 in the morning of the 21st day, being 
Thursday, till 8 in the same morning, being 6 
hours, we ran 6 leagues S. by W. Then the wind 
came to the W. and W. by S. ; very little wind till 
one o'clock ; the wind between the W and the S., 



152 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

and we ran not in that time above 2 leagues. At 
one the wind began to shift up at N.E. and pre- 
sently to the N.W., and blew strong, so as by 4 we 
ran 6 leagues. 

From 4 to 8 we ran 7 leagues, from 8 to 12 
other 7 leagues, from 12 to 4, being Eriday 
morning, 6 leagues, from 4 to 8 6 leagues, the 
course S.S.W. ; from 8 to 12 other 6 leagues 
S.S.W. ; and taking the height, we found ourselves 
in 48 degrees wanting 10 minutes. We then steered 
away S. by W., and so from 12 on Friday the 
22nd day, to 8 in the morning, being Saturday, 
the 23rd day, we ran near 24 leagues S. by W., 
the wind being at N.N.E. 

From 8 on Saturday morning to 8 on Sunday 
morning, being Bartelmeie day and the 24th, we ran 
35 leagues S. by W. 

Then it grew calm, and we ran not above 10 
leagues from Sunday the 24th to Monday the 25th. 

At 8 in the morning the wind failed and blew 
but a little gale at S.E. Monday night it blew 
strong at S., and it fell back from the S. to the 
S.S.W., and overblew so as we could lie but W. 
northerly, and so continued all Tuesday, the 26th 
day, the wind falling back at one o'clock of the 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 153 

same day to the S.W. ; we cast about and lay S.E. 
the other way that night [for] a try. 

Wednesday morning, the 27th, we set sail and 
lay S.S.E., and then S. by E. ; the wind at 
W.S.W. then changed to the W.N.W. and KW., 
so as from 5 the Wednesday morning to 12 o'clock 
of the same day we ran some 7 leagues, and 
brought the north part of Cape Finisterre east. 

From 12 we steered away S. and S. by E. to re- 
cover again our falling from our course towards 
the W., till 12 the next day, being the 28th, when 
as we found ourselves in 42 degrees, wanting 10 
minutes. 

From 12 the 28th to 12 the 29th, having the 
wind at N., we ran 35 leagues, and were in 40 
degrees wanting 30 minutes. 

From 12 the 29th to 12 the 30th day, we ran on 
30 leagues S., and brought Lisbon E. northerly. 

At 12 the same 30th day we discovered 4 sails, 
and gave them chase and ran W.S.W. till 7 at 
night, then leaving the chase we stood S.S.E. till 
12 at night, and then S., so as by 8 o'clock Sunday 
morning we had gone 18 leagues, and were 20 
leagues short of the Cape Saint Vincent. These 
4 ships were French, and came from Cape Blanck 



154 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

laden with fish and train oil, and were bound as 
they pretended for Seville in Spain ; but because 
they should not give knowledge that I was then 
passed by, joined them with me 100 leagues to the 
southward, and then buying of them a pinnace of 7 
ton and 3 pipes of train oil, for which I gave them 
in ready money 61 crowns, I dismissed them. It 
is true that I had arguments enough to persuade 
me that they had not fished but robbed the Por- 
tuguese and Spaniards at Cape Blanck, for they 
were not only provided and furnished like men of 
war, but had in them store of Spanish apparel and 
other things taken there. But because it is law- 
ful for the French to make prize of the Spanish 
king's subjects to the south of the Canaries and to 
the west of the Azores, and that it did not belong 
to me to examine the subjects of the French king, 
I did not suffer my company to take from them 
any pennyworth of their goods, greatly to the 
discontent of my company, who cried out that 
they were men of war and thieves ; and so indeed 
they were, for I met with a Spaniard afterwards of 
the grand Canaries whom they had robbed. 

From 8 Sunday morning to 12 Monday, being 
the 1st of September, we ran 40 leagues, and were 



THE DISCOVERY OF GTJIANA. 155 

in 35 degrees lacking 8 minutes, and made our 
way S. by E. 

From 12 on Monday to 12 on Tuesday, the 2nd 
day, we ran 30 leagues, having lain by the lee 4 
hours, and were in 33 degrees and a half. 

From 12 on Tuesday to 12 on Wednesday, the 
3rd day, we ran 30 leagues. 

From 12 on Wednesday to 12 on Thursday, the 
4th of September, we ran but 14 leagues S. by E. 
Friday the 5th and Saturday the 6th day, we ran 
with a good gale and made Lancerota on Saturday 
before noon, but on Saturday night we stood off 
till midnight and then stood in, and on Sunday, the 
7th day, came to anchor near the shore of Lan- 
cerota, where we landed our men to stretch their 
legs. The people fearing that we had been the 
same fleet of Turks which had spoiled Porta Sancta, 
put themselves in arms and came to the seaside 
with a flag of truce. The Governor being desirous 
to speak with me, to which I yielded, taking with 
me * Bradshew, with each of us a sword, 

and the Governor with one of his so armed, came 
into the plain to meet me, our troops staying at 

* In this and several similar instances there are blanks in 
he MS.— Ed. 



156 THE DISCOVERY OP GTJIANA. 

equal distance from us. After he had saluted me, 
his first desire was to know whether we were 
Christians or Turks, whereof being satisfied, he 
demanded what I sought for from that miserable 
and barren island peopled in effect all with Moris- 
cos. I answered him that although I landed many 
men to refresh them, T had no purpose to invade 
any of the Spanish king's territories, having re- 
ceived from the king my master express command- 
ment to the contrary, only I desired for my money 
such fresh meat as that island yielded, and because 
he should not doubt of what nation we were, I 
willed him to be informed by the English merchant 
whose ship lay by us, and whom we found in his 
port at our arrival trading with him and others of 
the island, and had lately brought them wine from 
Teneriffe and stayed for his lading of corn, where- 
upon he prayed me to set down in writing what I 
desired, and it should be furnished the next day, 
promising to send me that night some few muttons 
and goats for myself and the captains. In the 
morning, being Monday, the 8th day, the English 
merchant's man came to me, by whom I sent him 
a note for a quantity of wheat, goats, sheep, hens, 
and wine, for which the merchant should make the 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 157 

price, and to whom I would deliver so much ready- 
money or other truck as it amounted unto, promising 
him that my companies should not go from the 
seaside above a mile or two ; nor offend any of the 
inhabitants. I stayed the next day, but nothing 
came, which day we spent in training and muster- 
ing our companies on the sea shore ; the next he 
wrote me a letter in Spanish, wherein he protested, 
on the faith of a Cabaliro, that he would send the 
provisions the 3rd day, being the 1 1 th of Septem- 
ber, and sent me the English merchant which lay 
above at his town with 2 French factors to assure 
me, whom he abused by protesting as much to 
them. For my own part T never gave faith to his 
words, for I knew he sought to gain time to carry 
the goods of the town, being 7 miles from us, into 
the mountains. M> company pressed me that they 
might march towards the town, but besides that I 
knew that it would offend his Majesty, I am sure 
that the poor English merchant would have been 
ruined whose goods he had in his hands, and the 
way being mountainous and most extremely stony, I 
knew that I must Imve lost 20 good men in taking 
a town not worth two groats, for they were 300 
men, whereof 90 musketeers, upon a ground of 



158 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

infinite advantage. When the 3rd day was passed 
I sent the merchant's man with a letter charging 
him with his promise and faith given, and that did 
I not know that it would offend the king my 
sovereign, I would pull his Moriscos out of their 
town by the ears, and by the merchant's man I 
sent some 20s. to buy some hens and other trifles, 
by whom he returned answer that we were the 
same Turks which had taken and destroyed Porta 
Sancta, and therefore he was resolved to stand 
upon his guard, and were we English, yet if he 
gave us any relief he was sure to be hanged ; 
taking the money from the merchant's man, and 
beat him for offering to buy anything for us with- 
out his leave. I sent back the merchant's man 
and wrote unto him that because he was a poor 
fellow and needed apparel, if he would send back 
the merchant, I would send him 40 rial more 
to buy him a doublet to his hose, and for the 
rest it was enough for me to know his master's 
disposition, who notwithstanding the peace with 
our king, yet he had given order that no relief 
should be given to any of his subjects, and that 
evening departed and came the next day at night 
to the Grand Canaries, and from the south part sent 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 159 

a Spaniard who was a fisherman of that island, 
with a letter to the governor, to whom the other 
islands were subject, as to the supreme audience, 
with the copy of the governor of Lancerota his 
ietter to me and mine to him, and how I had no 
intent to invade any of those islands nor to of- 
fend any of the Spanish king's subjects, but only 
sought for water, and for fresh meat for my money, 
praying the governor to take knowledge that I 
had it in commandment from the king my master 
not to offer any violence, nor to take any places 
belonging to the Spanish king, only I desired 
from him to know if any such commandment were 
given to the governor of Lancerota not to trade 
with us, but to offend us *in all he could, or 
whether himself, being the king's lieutenant of all 
the islands, had any such order. In the mean- 
while lauding to get a little water, which I did 
with great difficulty, the quantity being not half a 
tun, I thought it perilous to stay in those extreme 
hot calms, my company in all the ships falling ex- 
tremely sick, whereof many died for want of water. 
I did therefore determine to stay but one day 
more for the governor's answer, where, being on 
the land with a few men, I set 2 or 3 sentinels, 



160 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

doubting the people might come down on the 
sudden. The islanders finding a sentinel of 2 of 
our company somewhat far off from the rest, they 
crept near them, by the favour of the trees and 
on the Sunday ran upon them. Our musketeer 
shooting off gave us the alarm ; our pick being 
charged with 3 of them, received 3 wounds, being 
one Smith, a master's mate of Sir J. Feme's ship, 
but behaved himself so well as he slew one of them 
and recovered his pike. Capt. Thornehurst being a 
valiant and active man hasted to their rescue, and 
with a horseman's piece shot another of them. Mr. 
Hawton with his pick wounded the third, so as all 
three died in the place, the rest taking their heels. 
We were now out of their debt, for at Lancerota, 
by the vanity and madness of a sergeant who 
standing sentinel would needs force the governor's 
sentinel from his ground, they being 20 and ours 
but 3, whereof we lost two. 

From the calms of the great Canaries (where at 
this time of the year the springs being dried up 
there was no water to be had) we set sail the 3rd 
of September and stood for Gomera, where some ot 
our company assured us there was water enough ; 
but we fell to leeward of it that night. The next 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 161 

day being Thursday the 4th, we turned it up and 
recovered the port, being the best of all the Canaries, 
the town and castle standing on the very breach of 
the sea ; but the billows do so tumble and overfall 
as it is impossible to land upon any part of the 
strand but by swimming, saving in a cove under 
steep rocks, where they can pass towards the town 
but one after another, and could they pass 10 men 
in front, yet from the steep mountain of rock over 
the way they were all sure to be beaten in pieces 
with massy stones. Before we were at anchor they 
shot at us from those rocks, and we, to let them 
know that we had good ordnance, gave them some 
20 demi-culverin through their houses and then 
forbear. I then sent a Spaniard on shore to the 
Count Lord and Governor of the island, and wrote 
unto him that I came not thither as the Hollanders 
did, to sack their town and burn their churches as 
the Hollanders did in the year , but being in 

necessity of water, for it only, and therefore as he 
had begun the war in shooting first, so it should be 
his fault to continue it by denying us to relieve 
ourselves whereunto we were mainly constrained. 
To this he made answer in writing and in fair 
terms that he was advertised from the other islands 
p— 67 



162 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

that we were the same Turks which had taken 
Porto Santa, otherwise he would be ready to do 
me service. I answered that he received that adver- 
tisement from the Morisco of Forte ventura, but to 
put him altogether out of doubt I would send him 
6 other Spaniards of the Gran Canaries, taken on 
Africa side in a small barque, who should resolve 
him that we were Christians, and the vassals of the 
King of Great Britain in perfect league and amity 
with the King of Spain. This being done, we made 
an agreement that his soldiers and others to the 
number of 300 should quit their trenches upon the 
landing-places where they were so well assured by 
divers redoubts one above another, as the Hollanders 
were forced to land their army six miles from this 
port when they took it as aforesaid, and where in 
passing the mountains they lost 80 soldiers ; and 
I, for my part, should promise on the faith of a 
Christian not to land above 30 mariners without 
weapons to fill water ; we were within a pistol-shot of 
the wash of the sea, myself further promising that 
none of those should enter their houses nor their 
gardens. Upon this agreement I sent my boat 
ashore with my baricos, adventuring but two pooi 
sailors ashore and 4 to keep the boat, which had 



THE DISCOVERT OF GUIANA. 163 

ill her head 2 good murderers, and for the more 
safety, and brought six ships with their broad- 
sides towards the town, which I would have 
beaten down in 10 hours if they had broken the 
agreement. 

By the Spaniard which carried my letter to the 
Count, I sent his lady 6 exceeding fine handker- 
chiefs and 6 pair of gloves, and wrote unto her that 
if there were anything worthy of her in my fleet 
she should command it and me. She sent me 
answer that she was sorry that her barren island 
had nothing worthy of me, and with her letter sent 
me 4 very great loaves of sugar, a basket of lemons, 
which I much desired to comfort and refresh our 
many sick men, a basket of oranges, a basket of 
most delicate grapes, another of pomegranates and 
of figs, which trifles were better welcome unto me 
than a 1,000 crowns could have been. I # gave her 
servants 2 crowns to each, and answering her letter 
in the fairest terms I could, because I would not 
rest in her debt, I sent her 2 ounces of amber 
grease, an ounce of the delicate extract of amber, a 
great glass of rose-water in high estimation here, 
and a very excellent picture of Mary Magdalen, 
and a cutwork ruff. These presents were received 



164 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

with so great thanks, and so much acknowledgment 
of debt as could be expressed, and upon Saturday- 
there was sent me a basket of delicate white 
manchet, and 2 dozen of fat hens with divers fruits. 
In the meanwhile, Friday, Saturday, and part of 
Sunday we filled 240 pipes of water, and the 
Sunday evening we departed without any offence 
given or received to the value of a farthing, for 
testimony whereof the Earl sent his friar aboard 
my ship with a letter to D. Diego Sarmiento, am- 
bassador in England, witnessing how noble we had 
behaved ourselves, and how justly we had dealt 
with the inhabitants of the island. 

Being ready to set sail, we delivered the Spanish 
fisherman his barque, and discharged another small 
barque taken here at our first arrival with all their 
furniture, and directed our course from Gomera 
on the same Sunday fortnight (being the 21st of 
September) which we arrived at Lancerota, having 
spent 14 days among these islands. 

From Sunday at 4 at afternoon to Monday at 4, 
being the 22nd day, we ran 20 leagues, for we 
carried a slack sail for some of our fleet which were 
not ready to weigh with us. 

From 4 on Monday to 12 at noon on Tuesday, 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 165 

being the 23rd, we ran 25 leagues S.W by S., with 
the breezes at N.E. 

From 12 on Tuesday to 12 on Wednesday, being 
the 24th of September, we made 6 leagues a watch, 
drawing at our stern a long boat of 14 ton fastened 
with 2 great cables, which hung deep in the way 
and greatly hindered our sailing, holding the same 
S.W. by S. course, the wind constant. We had at 
this time 50 men sick in our ship. 

From 12 on Wednesday to 12 on Thursday, 
the 25th day, the breezes continuing, but not so 
strong, we ran about 33 leagues S.W. by W., and 
found ourselves in 23 degrees and 17 minutes. 

From Thursday 12 to Friday 12, being the 26th 
day, we brought ourselves into 22 degrees northerly, 
the wind continuing, and the course S.S.W., for 
whereas we resolved to fall with the weathermost 
island of Cape de Yerde, called St. Antoine, being 
informed that the same was desolate and could 
yield us no refreshing, and that we had 60 men sick 
aboard us, we determined to touch at Bravo, where 
I was told that there were people and fresh meat. 

From 12 the 26th to 12 the 27th we ran 38 
leagues, and were in 19 degrees 20 minutes, the 
course S. by W. 



166 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

From 12 the 27th to 12 the 28th, being Sunday, 
we had a few hours calm, and ran but 27 leagues, 
and were at 12 o'clock in 18 degrees. 

Monday at noon we found ourselves in 16 
degrees and 20 minutes, and Monday night by the 
star we found ourselves in 1 5 degrees and half, and 
then we lay at hull from 8 at night to 6 in the 
morning, when we saw the island of Stiago fair 
by us. Monday being Michaelmas day, there died 
our Master Surgeon, Mr. Nubal, to our great loss ; 
the same day also died Barber, one of our quarter- 
masters, and our sail-maker, and we had 60 men 
sick, and all mine own servants amongst them, that 
I had none of mine own bub my pages to serve me. 

Tuesday night we stood off because we meant to 
water at Bravo four leagues to the westward of 
Fridgo Fuego, being 1 2 leagues to the west of Stiago. 
HolcrofF, the sergeant of my son's company, died. 

That night the pinnace that was Captain Barkers', 
having all her men asleep, and not any one at the 
watch, drove under our bowsprit and sunk ; but the 
men were saved, though better worthy to have been 
hanged than saved. 

Wednesday we stood back with Bravo, but found 
very inconvenient anchoring and rough ground, 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 167 

and that night having the Yice-admiral with me 
at supper, myself being newly come from the shore 
to feel out a better road, a hurricane fell upon us 
with most violent rain, and broke both our cables 
at the instant, greatly to the damage of the ship 
and all our lives, but it pleased God that her head 
cast from the shore and drove off. I was myself 
so wet as the water ran in at my neck, and out at 
my knees, as if it had been poured on me with 
pails. All the rest of our fleet lost their cables 
and anchors ; 3 of our small men that rode in a 
cove, close under the land, had like all to have 
perished ; Captain Snedul grated on the rocks ; 
Wulleston and King escaped them not their ship's 
length. 

Thursday we stood up upon a tack to recover the 
island, for I had sent off my skiff to fish not half 
a quarter of an hour before the hurricane, and I 
gave her lost and six of my men in her to my 
great discomfort, having had so great mortality ; 
but I thank my God I found them in the morning 
under the shore and recovered them, but I lost 
another of my pinnaces called The Fifty Crowns — 
because I paid fifty crowns to the French men for 
her — in this storm. 



168 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

Friday one of my trumpeters and one other of 
the eookrom died. 

Finding that the rains and storms were not yet 
past in this place, and finding no fair ground to 
ride in, I resolved rather to leave the island and 
the refreshing we hoped for here, than to en- 
danger our ships, the most of them having lost a 
a cable and anchor, and myself two. This island 
of Bravo standeth in , a little island but 

fruitful, having store of goats, cattle, maize, figs, 
and water ; it hath on the north side little islands 
and broken grounds, which doth, as it were, impale 
it ; on the west side it hath an excellent watering- 
place in a cove, in which there may ride a dozen 
ships if they come either before or after the rains 
and storms, which begin in the middle of July and 
end in the middle of August, and in this cove and 
all along the west side abundance of fish. There 
is a current which sets very strong from the south 
to the north, and runs in effect always so. This 
night Captain Pigott's lieutenant, called Allen, 
died. 

Thursday night I stood off a league, and then 
lay by the Lee the most part of the night to stay for 
some of our ships that were in the cove to take 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 169 

water, so as by 12 on Friday we were about 10 
leagues off the island. On Friday morning, being 
the 3rd of October, our Captain Marchant Kemishe 
died. Friday at noon we lay again by Lee to stay 
for King, who was in my fly-boat, and lay so till 
Saturday, having sent back Captain Barker in the 
carvell to seek him, but hearing of neither we 
filled our sails at 12, and stood away athwart the 
ocean, steering away towards the coast of Guiana 
S.W. by W. 

From Saturday 12 to Sunday 12 we made 30 
leagues. 

From Sunday 12 to Monday 12 we made 28 
leagues. This Monday morning died Mr. John 
Haward, ensign to Captain North, and Lieutenant 
Pay ton and Mr. Hues fell sick. There also died, 
to our great grief, our principal refiner, Mr. 
Fowler. 

From Monday at 12, to Tuesday the 7th of 
October, we made but 4 leagues a watch, and in 
all 24 leagues, by the high not so much, for 
Tuesday at noon we found ourselves but in 12 
degrees and 30 minutes, and then the current set 
us half a point to the westward of the S.W. by W. 

From 12 on Tuesday to 12 on Wednesday, the 



170 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

8th of October, we had little wind and made but 
22 leagues, and we found ourselves in 11 degrees 
and 39 minutes. This evening my servant 

Crabb died, so as I had not any one 
left to attend me but my pages. 

From 12 on Wednesday to 12 on Thursday we 
had a fresher gale, and made 30 leagues ; but all 
this day we bare little sail, the weather being rainy 
with gusts and much wind, as it is commonly in 
these parts at the small of the moon. 

From 12 on Thursday to 12 on Friday, we had 
nothing but rain and not much wind, so as we 
made but 4 leagues a watch, to wit 24 leagues, and 
the nearest that we could observe the sun shining 
but little and by starts was 10 degrees and 8 
minutes ; but in the afternoon it cleared up, which 
we hoped that God would have continued, for we 
were all drowned in our cabins ; but about 4 o'clock 
there rose a most fearful blackness over the one 
half of the sky, and it drove against the wind, 
which threatened a tornado, and yet it pleased God 
that it brake but into rain, and the evening again 
hopeful, but there blew no wind at all, so as we 
lay becalmed all the night, and the next day, at 12 
on Saturday, we observed and found ourselves in 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 171 

10 degrees and 10 minutes, and had not made from 
noon to noon above 5 leagues. 

From Saturday, the 11th day, at 12, to Sunday at 
1 2, we had all calms as before, and the little breath 
which we sometimes had was for the most part 
south and to the westward, which hath seldom been 
seen in this passage and climate, so as we made not 
above six leagues W. by S. ; in the afternoon the 
wind took us a-stays, and blew a little gale from 
the N.N.W. 

This Sunday morning died Mr. Hues, a very 
honest and civil gentleman, having laid sick but 
six days. In this sort it pleased God to visit us 
with great sickness and loss of our ablest men, 
both land men and seamen ; and having by reason 
of the tornado at Bravo failed of our watering, we 
were at this time in miserable estate, not having 
in our ship above seven days water, 60 sick men, 
and nearly 400 leagues of the shore, and becalmed. 

We found ourselves this day at noon in 10 
degrees, and so we had raised since Saturday noon 
but ten minutes. From Sunday noon to Monday 
noon we made not above 12 leagues ; observe we 
could not for the dark weather. A lamentable 
twenty-four hours it was, in which we lost 



172 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

Captain John Pigott, my Lieutenant G. by land, 
my honest friend Mr. John Talbot, one that 
had lived with me eleven years in the Tower, an 
excellent general scholar and a faithful true man 
as lived. We lost also Mr. Gardner and Mr. 
Mordent, two very fair conditioned gentlemen, and 
mine own cook Francis. 

From Monday at 12 to Tuesday at 12, having 
in the night a fresh gale with much rain, we ran 
some 26 leagues. I observed this day, and so I 
did before, that the morning rainbow doth not 
give a fair day as in England ; but there followed 
much rain and wind, and that we found the winds 
here for 6 or 7 days together to the southward 
of the E. as at S.E. and S.S.E., and always rain 
and gusts more or less. 

Wednesday morning we saw another rainbow, 
and about 10 o'clock it began to gather as black 
as pitch in the south, and from thence there fell 
as much rain as I have seen, but with little 
wind. 

From Tuesday 12 to Wednesday 12, we ran not 
above 14 leagues ; observe we could not, neither 
Monday, Tuesday, nor Wednesday, for the dark- 
ness of the sky, which is very strange in these 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 173 

parts, for most of the afternoon we steered our 
ship by candle-light. 

From Wednesday 12 to Thursday 12 we had all 
calms, saving some few hours in the night, and 
from 7 in the morning till 10, and the wind we had 
was so weak as we made not above 6 leagues ; 
about 10 in the morning it began to rain, and it 
continued strong till 2 at after dinner, the effect of 
the morning rainbow. About 3 the wind, the little 
that it was, blew at W.S.W., which hath not 
often been seen. Captain Jennings died and 
many fell sick. 

From Thursday 12 to Friday 12 we could make 
no reckoning, for the wind changed so often 
between the S. and the W., as after the changing 
of the tack divers times, we found it best to take in 
all our sails and lay at hull, for the wind that 
blew was horrible with violent rain, and at S.W. 
and S.S.W., and so it continued all night, and so it 
doth continue this Saturday morning, and think 
that since the Indies were discovered never was the 
like wind found in this high, which we guess to be 
about nine degrees, for we could not observe since 
Monday last. 

Saturday morning it cleared up, and at noon we 



174 THE DISCOVEEY OP GUIANA. 

found ourselves in 9 degrees and 45 minutes, as 
we supposed, but the wind directly contrary as 
well in the storms as in the sun shining, and 
lying at hull we drove to the north-west, and fell 
altogether to leeward ; we set sail after dinner and 
stood by a wind to the eastward, but could lie but 
S.E. and by E. 

The night proved altogether calm, so as we 
moved no way, but we hoped that upon the change 
of the moon, which changed Sunday about eleven 
o'clock, that God would send us the long-looked-for 
breeze. This night died my cousin Payton, lieu- 
tenant of my son's company. 

Sunday proved also stark calm and extreme hot, 
so as between Saturday noon and Sunday noon we 
could not reckon that we had gone a league, but 
that we had driven somewhat to the northward, 
for we found ourselves on Saturday in 9 degrees 
and 45 minutes, and Sunday at noon in 9 degrees 
and 50 minutes. The evening proved exceeding 
fair and clear round about the horizon, and the 
sun set so fair, it being also the day of the change, 
as we all hoped, for exceeding fair weather ; but the 
rules and signs of weather do not hold in this 
climate, for at midnight the sky was overcast and 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 175 

it began to gust again, but the wind good ; the 
Monday morning was also exceeding dark, and it 
blew and did rain violently. Towards 1 2 it cleared 
up with a fresh gale at E. and by S., so as I make 
account that we ran from 1 2 on Sunday to 12 on 
Monday some 1 6 degrees. Monday, between 6 and 
7 at night, we had a strong gust with so much 
wind and rain as we were forced to lie at hull till 
midnight, and then we set sail. In the morning we 
had much rain and wind, and that fearful and 
resistless fall of a cloud called a spout, and it fell, 
blessed be God, some 2 miles from us to windward. 

From Monday 12 to Tuesday 12 we had hardly 
advanced 13 leagues, for we found ourselves at 12 
but in 9 degrees ; Tuesday night proved fair, and 
the wind till midnight at E.N.E. ; after midnight 
it fell slack, and so continued till 12 on Wednesday. 

Wednesday we observed and found ourselves 
but in 8 degrees and 12 minutes, and had not 
made above 22 leagues, for the current that sets 
here strongly to the .N.W. took us in the weather 
bow and dulled our way, always thrusting us to 
leeward. 

This Wednesday morning we saw a third rain- 
bow ; of the two former we had the effect of foul 



176 THE DISCOVERY OP GTJIANA. 

weather ; it also lighted the most part of these two 
nights, which they say foreshows rain, and so we 
have found it hitherto. Wednesday's rainbow gave 
us but one gust at night, all the rest of the night 
being fair ; about 8 o'clock we saw Magellan's 
Cloud, round and white, which riseth and setteth 
with the stars. 

Thursday morning was fair, and we observed 
and found ourselves in 7 degrees and 40 minutes. 
From Wednesday noon to Thursday noon we made 
upon a course S.W. and by S. 18 leagues. We 
had on Thursday evening a rainbow, and there 
follows a foul night, and a dark Friday till noon 
with a wind at S.S.E., so bare as we could not lie 
our course, and so long we have had those winds 
southerly against the very order of nature in this 
navigation as we have cause to fear that we shall 
not be able to fetch our port, but be put to sea- 
ward. 

From Thursday 12 to Friday 12 we made but 
1 2 leagues, and found ourselves in 7 degrees and 20 
minutes ; our water being also near spent, we were 
forced to come to half allowance. Friday, about 3 
at afternoon, the wind came altogether southerly 
and rather to the westward, so as we could lie but 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 177 

west southerly and make but a W.N.W. way, and 
in the evening we saw a wind gale in the east. 
The wind increasing towards night, and the sky 
fearfully overcast, we lay at hull, and so continued 
all night with violent rains and much wind. 

Saturday morning it cleared up in the S., and we 
lay E.S.E. the other way to keep ourselves up, 
but being able to lie but E.S.E. and E. by S. ; the 
sea also heaving us to the northward we made but 
a leeward way. At 3 in the afternoon in a gust 
the wind came N., and then hoped to recover our 
height, but it calmed again in the rains, and so it 
continued in effect all night, and the morning that 
little wind which we had was but at S. easterly, so 
as between Saturday 12 and Sunday 12 we made 
not above 9 leagues, and raised not 10 minutes 
towards the south. 

From Sunday 12 o'clock to Monday 12 we had 
the wind no better than S. and by E. and S.S.E., 
! and made but 10 leagues at most. 

From Monday to Tuesday 12 o'clock we had 

• little wind with fair weather, only at five in the 

morning we had a little gale, first at E.N.E., and 

then at E. and by S., and we made not above 8 

leagues, and found ourselves in 7 degrees steering 



178 THE DISCOVERT OP GUIANA. 

away south to recover our height. Here we found 
the compass to vary 7 degrees. 

From Tuesday to Wednesday 12 we had the 
wind large, but so gentle a wind as we made not 
above 10 leagues, and found ourselves by an 
obscure observation in 6 degrees ; two rainbows we 
had in the morning, but fair weather had hitherto 
followed, and so we hoped that the rains had 
been past ; but the circle about the moon the 
Tuesday night and the double rainbow on Wednes- 
day morning paid us towards the evening with 
rain and wind, in which gust we made shift to 
save some three hogsheads of water, besides that, 
the company having been many days scanted and 
pressed with drought drank up whole quarter cans 
of the bitter rain water. The Wednesday night 
was also calm, with thunder and lightning. 

Thursday morning we had again a double rain- 
bow, which put us in fear that the rains would 
never end; from Wednesday 12 to Thursday 12 we 
made not above 6 leagues, having always uncom- 
fortable rains and dead calms. 

The last of October at night, rising out of bed, 
being in a great sweat by reason of a sudden gust 
and much clamour in the ship before they could 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 179 

get down the sails, I took a violent cold which 
cast me into a burning fever, than which never 
man endured any more violent nor never man 
suffered a more furious heat and an unquenchable 
drought. For the first twenty days I never received 
any sustenance, but now and then a stewed prune, 
but drank every hour day and night, and sweat so 
strongly as I changed my shirts thrice every day 
and thrice every night. 

The 11th of November we made the North Cape 
of Wiapoco, the cape then bearing S.W. and by W. 
as they told me, for I was not yet able to move out 
of my bed ; we rode in 6 fathom 5 leagues of the 
shore. I sent in my skiff to inquire for my old 
servant Leonard the Indian, who had been with me 
in England 3 or 4 years, the same man that took 
Mr. Harcourt's brother and 50 of bis men when they 
came upon that coast and were in extreme distress, 
having neither meat to carry them home nor means 
to live there but by the help of this Indian, whom 
they made believe that they were my men • but I 
could not hear of him by my boat that I sent in, 
for he was removed 30 miles into the country, and 
because I had an ill road and 5 leagues off, I durst 
not stay his sending for, but stood away for 



180 THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 

Oaliana, where the Cazique was also my servant, 
and had lived with me in the Tower 2 years. 

Yet the 1 2th day we weighed and stood somewhat 
nearer the land some 3 leagues off; my boat going 
and returning brought us some of the country 
fruits, and left in the port two Hollanders for 
Onotto, gums, and speckled wood. 

The 13 th I set sail along the coast and anchored 
that night in eleven fathom near an island, where 
there were so many birds as they killed them with 
staves ; there grows upon it those trees which bear 
the great cods of hereculla silk. This island is 
but little, and is from the mainland some 4 leagues ; 
the same afternoon we weighed and stood along 
the coast towards Caliana W.S.W. and S.W. and 
by west, and anchored again in the evening some 
5 leagues S.W. from the island of birds, in five 
fathom within a kind of bay. 

The 14th day we stood out of the bay, and 
passed by 3 or 4 islands, where there grew many 
trees of those that bare the cods of silk also; by 
the islands we had 10 fathom, from whence we 
stood along into 6 fathom, and came to an anchor, 
thence I sent my barge ashore to inquire for my 
servant Harry the Imiian, who sent his brother 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 181 

unto me with two other Caziques, promising to 
come to me with provisions if I came not into the 
river within a day or two. These Indians stayed 
with me that night, offering their service and all 
they had. Mine own weakness, which still con- 
tinued, and the desire I had to be carried ashore 
to change the air, and out of an unsavoury ship, 
pestered with many sick men, which, being unable 
to move, poisoned us with a most filthy stench, 
persuaded me to adventure my ship over a bar 
where never any vessel of burden had passed. In 
the road my barge found one Janson of Flushing, 
who had traded that place about a dozen years, 
who came to me where I rode without, offering me 
his service for the bringing in of my ship, and 
assuring me that on the top of a full sea there 
was 3 fathom, whereupon the rest of my fleet 
went into the river and anchored within in 4 and 
5 fathom. It flows there N.E. and S.W. ; here I 
stayed at anchor from the 14th day to the 17th 
day, when by the help of Janson I got over the 
bar in 3 fathom a quarter less, when I drew 17 
foot water. 

After I had stayed in Caliana a day or two, my 
servant Harry came to me, who had almost for 



182 THE DISCOVERY OP OTJIAilA. 

gotten his English, and brought me great store of 
very good Casavi bread, with which I fed my com- 
pany some 7 or 8 days, and put up a hogshead 
full for store ; he brought great plenty of roasted 
mullets, which were very good meat, great store of 
plantains and piones, with divers other sorts of 
fruits and pistachios, but as yet I durst not adven- 
ture to eat of the pione, which tempted me ex- 
ceedingly, but after a day or two, being carried 
ashore and sitting under a tent, I began to 
eat of the pione, which greatly refreshed me, and 
after that I fed on the pork of the country, and 
of the Armadillos, and began to gather a little 
strength. 

Here I also set all my sick men ashore, and 
made clean my ship, and where they all recovered ; 
and here we buried Captain Hastings, who died 10 
days or more before, and with him my Sergeant- 
major Hart, and Captain Henry Snedul, giving 
the charge of Snedul's ship to my servant, Captain 
Robert Smith of Cornwall. We also in this river 
set up our barges, and made clean our ships, 
trimmed up our cask, and filled store of water, 
set up our smith's forge, and made such ironwork 
as the fleet needed. In this river we refreshed 



THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 183 

ourselves from the 17th day of November till the 
4th of December. 

Captain Janson, whom we found a very honest 
man, departed from Caliana towards Flushing the 
, and Captain Peter Ally being still troubled 
with the vertigo, desirous therefore to return 
because unable to endure the rolling of the ship, 
I got passage for him with Janson and for , 

who could not yet recover his health in this hot 
country. 

The 4th of December I weighed and fell down 
to the haven's mouth, not daring to lose the spring 
tide ; the rest of my ships had yet somewhat to do 
about their boats which they newly set up, to wit, 
The Flying Hart, wherein was Sir John Feme, and 
The Chudley ; all promised to follow within a day 
or two, and I told them that I would stay them at 
the Triangle Islands called Epinessarie, only the 
Vice-admiral followed me, to wit, Captain Pening- 
ton, in the Jason, and notwithstanding that I had 
sounded the bar twice or thrice before I durst put 
over, yet I came aground in 16 foot, it being a 
quarter ebb ere I could get over by reason of the 
little wind which I found a sea-board. We used all 
the help we had by warping and otherwise being 



184 THE DISCOVERT OP GUIANA. 

greatly assisted by the Vice-admiral's boats and 
warps, but we stuck two whole tides and two 
nights, and afterward had foul water in 3 fathom, 
but God favoured us with very fair weather, and 
the ground was all ooze, and very soft, for had it 
been hard ground, and any weather at all, we had 
left our bones there. 

In this melancholy toil we spent the 5th and 
6th day, and then came to anchor at the Triangle 
Islands before spoken of in 6 fathom, where I 
stayed for the rest of the fleet till the 10th day, 
who, neglecting the spring-tide, though they drew 
by far less water than I did, were like to have 
perished upon the flats where I struck. 

The 10th day the rest of the fleet came to me, 
all but the Chudley, and then I embarked my men 
in five ships for the Orinoco, to wit, 400 soldiers and 
sailors. The ships I sent off were the Encounter, 
commanded by Captain Whitney ; the Supply, of 
Captain King ; the Pink, of Robert Smith, Captain 
Olestone, and Captain Hall. 

Sir Warren Sentleger, to whom as to my lieu- 
tenant I gave the charge of those companies, fell 
extreme sick at Caliana, and in his place as 
sergeant major, I appointed my nephew, George 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 185 

Raleigh ; the land companies were commanded by 
Captain Parker, Captain North, my son W. 
Raleigh, Captain Thornehurst, Captain Hall, and 
Captain Chudles, lieutenant ; Captain Kemisho 
having the chief charge for their landing within 
the river. 

The 10th day they parted from us with a 
month's victuals, or somewhat more ; I gave them 
orders to stay a day or two in Shurinamo, to get 
pilots, and to bring some of our great barges a- 
ground, who were weak and leaked, by towing 
them from Caliana. I also gave them order to 
send into Dessekebe, for I assured them that they 
could not want pilots there for the Orinoco, being the 
next great river adjoining unto it, and to which 
the Spaniards of the Orinoco had daily recourse. 

The 15th of December we made the land near 
Puncto Anegada, at the mouth of the Orinoco, 
and that night we saw the northern part of Trinidad, 
and came to anchor in 30 fathom 6 leagues off the 
shore. From thence we coasted the island, near the 
south side in 15 fathom, and near the shore in 10 
and 11 fathom, and coming close aboard the point 
of the road at the west end of the island which 
point they naturally call Curiapan, and the 



186 THE DISCOVEBY OF GUIANA. 

Spaniards, Puncto de Gallo, we had 5 fathom. It 
floweth on this south coast E.N.E. and W.S.W. 
It is needful to sail near the point of Gallo, which 
you may do boldly because there lieth a dangerous 
ledge of rock so half a mile of the road to the 
westward, a most forcible current that sets off the 
point ; a greater current can nowhere be found, 
the current of Bahama excepted. 

The 17th we came to anchor at Puncto Gallo, 
where we stayed, taking water, fish, and some 
Armadillos, refreshing our men with palmetto, 
Guiavas, piniorellas, and other fruit of the country, 
till the last of December. In sailing by the south 
coast of Trinidad I saw in one day, to wit, the 
16th of December, 15 rainbows and 2 wind gales, 
and one of the rainbows brought both ends together 
at the stern of the ship, making a perfect circle, 
which I never saw before, nor any man in my ship 
had seen the like. 

The last of December we weighed anchor and 
turned up north-east towards Conquerabo, other- 
wise called the port of Spain, being New Year's 
eve, and we came to anchor at Terra de Bri, short 
of the Spanish port some 10 leagues. This Terra 
de Bri is a piece of land of some 2 leagues long 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 187 

and a league broad, all of stone pitch or bitumen, 
which riseth out of the ground in little springs or 
fountains, and so running a little way, it hardeneth 
in the air and covereth all the plain ; there are 
also many springs of water, and in and among 
them fresh-water fish. Here rode at anchor, and 
trimmed our boats ; we had here some fish, and 
many of the country pheasants somewhat bigger 
than ours, and many of the hens exceeding fat and 
delicate meat. 

The 19 th of January we sent up Sir J. Feme's 
ship to the Spanish port, to try if they would trade 
for tobacco and other things ; but when her boat 
was near the shore, while they on the land were in 
parley with Captain Giles, who had charge of the 
boat, the Spaniards gave them a volley of some 20 
muskets at 40 paces distant, and yet hurt never 
a man. As our boat put off) they called our men 
thieves and traitors, with all manner of opprobrious 
speeches. 

The of January we sent back the Vice- 

admiral, Captain Penington, to Puncto Gallo to 
attend the return of our companies in the Orinoco. 

The 29th of January we lost one of Sir Joseph 
Feme's men, who being ashore boiling of the country 



188 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

pitch was shot by a Spaniard, who lay in the wood* 
all night with five other Spaniards. Our shipf 
taking the alarm we weighed out our boats ; I tool} 
my barge with six shot, Captain Chudley took hib 
skiff, and Sir W. Sentleger his ; we pursued them 
with all haste possible, and forced them to forsake 
their canoes and run into the thick woods, leaving 
behind them their cloaks, and all other implements 
but their arms. There were of Sir J. Feme's men 
three, and one boy ; one of them was slain, one 
swam aboard, and a third hid himself in the woods 
till my barge came ashore ; the boy we suppose was 
carried with them alive. 

The last of January we returned from the pitch 
land to Puncto Gallo, hoping to meet our men 
which we sent into the Orinoco. 

The first of February, the sentinel which we had 
laid to the eastward of Puncto Gallo to discover if 
any ships or boats came from the east along the 
coast, for we could not discover anything where we 
rowed till they were within a mile of us by that the 
point lay out so far ; these of the sentinel discovered 
seven Indians and brought them unto us. They had 
a village some 16 miles from us to the eastward, and 
as it proved afterward, came but as spies to discover 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 189 

our forces ; they were two days aboard, and would 
be unknown that they could speak any word of 
Spanish, but by signs they made us know that they 
dwelt but one day's journey towards the east. I 
kept 3 of them aboard, and sent 12 of my men 
with the other 4 to see their town and to trade 
with them, but in their way thitherward one of 
the Vice-admiral's men espied an Indian, one of the 
•4 who two years before he had seen in the Orinoco, 
and taking him by the arm told him that he knew 
him, and that he could speak Spanish. In the end, 
after many threats, he spake, and confessed that 
one of the three aboard my ship could also speak 
Spanish ; whereupon the "Vice-admiral's man re- 
turning aboard me, and I threatening the chief of 
these which I had kept, one of them spake Spanish, 
and told me that certain Indians of the drowned 
vands, inhabited by a nation called Tibitivas, 
arriving in a canoe at his port, told him that the 
English in the Orinoco had taken St. Thome, slain 
Diego de Palmita, the governor, slain Captain 
Erenetta and Captain John Rues, and that the 
rest of the Spaniards, their captains slain, fled 
into the mountains, and that two English captains 
were also slain. This tale was also confirmed by 



190 THE DISCOVERY OP GUIANA. 

another Indian which my men brought from the 
Indian town, with divers others particulars, which 
I forbear to set down till I know the truth, for 
the 6th of this month I sent the Vice-admiral's skiff 
from Puncto Gallo towards the Orinoco manned with 
10 musketeers to understand what my men had 
done there, and the cause of their long stay, having 
received no news from them since they entered 
the Orinoco but by these Indians since the 10th of 
December, other than that they were at the river's 
mouth, which news Captain Chudley (who accom- 
panied them so far) brought me. 

The 3rd of January my men returned from the 
Indian town, and brought with them some Casavi 
bread with other fruits, and very fair oranges. 

The 4th of January a boat that I had sent over 
to the south side, where I saw a great fire, returned, 
not finding any people there. 

The 6th day I sent a skiff over toward the Orinoco 
manned with 10 musketeers, to hear what was be- 
come of my men there. The same day came into 
this port Captain Giner, of the Isle of Wight, and 
his pinnace. 

The 8th day I sent 16 musketeers by land to 
the Indian town to bring away some of the Indians 



THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA. 191 

which spake Spanish, and to separate them from 
those two which I kept aboard me, because I found 
them so divers in their reports as touching the 
Orinoco, and because one of them had confessed the 
day before that himself, with the pilot which I sent 
into Orinoco in the skiff, and one of them in the 
Indian town, were in St. Thome when it was taken 
by the English. I was desirous by taking 2 or 3 
of the rest to know the truth, but so careless were 
the mariners I sent, as they suffered all to go 
loose and to escape : but I had yet 2 Indians aboard 
me, and a third went pilot for the Orinoco. One 
of these I sent away with knives to trade with 
a nation inhabiting the east part of Trinidad 
called the Nepoios, with this charge, that if he 
came not again after 4 days (which was the time 
by him required), that I would then hang his 
brother, which was the pilot aforesaid, and this 
other Indian aboard, to which the Indian aboard 
condescended. 

But the 12 th of February I went ashore and 
took the Indian with me, fastened and well-bound 
to one of my men, so carried him with me to show 
me' the trees which yield balsam, of which I had 
recovered a nutful of that kind which smells like 



192 THE DISCOVERT OF GTJIANA. 

Angolica, and is very rare and precious ; and aftei 
it was 10 o'clock, and very hot, the wood also being 
full of mosquitoes, I returned and left my Indian 
in charge of one of my master mates and 3 others ; 
but I was no sooner gone but they untied him, and 
he at the instant took the wood and escaped, not- 
withstanding that I had told them that if the 
Indian got but a tree between him and them, and 
were loose, that all the English in the fleet could 
not fetch him again. I had now none left but the 
pilot sent to the Orinoco, and I fear me that he also 
will slip away by the negligence of the mariners, 
who (I mean the common sort) are diligent in 
nothing but pillaging and stealing. 

The 13th day Captain Giner and I made an 
agreement that he should follow me with his small 
ship and pinnace for 6 months after this 13th day. 

The same evening I sent Sir W. Sentleger, 
Captain Chudley, and Captain Giles, with 60 men, 
to the Indian town to try if I could recover any of 
them 



